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Chew keeping NPHS on course for continued achievement
With his first year as principal under his belt at North Putnam High School, Jason Chew has to be wondering what he and his school can do for an encore.
After all, for the third straight year, North Putnam has earned 4-Star status (based on testing) as the only school in Putnam County to do so. In fact, when NPHS was initially designated a 4-Star School, it was the first such accomplishment for Putnam County (South Putnam has since followed suit), and NPHS remains the only local school with a three-year streak of success.
The 2014-15 school year also saw North Putnam High School earn an A rating as it has the past several years. That rating is based on graduation rate, test results, the number of students demonstrating they are college or career ready and criteria like how much students have grown in ability from eighth grade through high school.
Through it all, the 36-year-old Chew is humbled to be a part of the process and readily deflects the credit to teachers and students.
He noted recently that 70 percent of the graduating class has reported they intend on enrolling in either a two-year or four-year college or technical school this summer or fall.
And the 2015 NPHS class has combined to accumulate nearly $1 million in scholarships ($914,000 to be exact), which Chew sees as investments in those students.
"They are investments in what someone believes you can do," he told the class.
It's all part of the North Putnam experience that Chew has helped develop and seen prosper. He wants all 480 students in the four grades to feel a part of it.
"We are very proud of our school and corporation," he said after finishing his first year succeeding one of the most popular principals any area school corporation has had in recent memory in Alan Zerkel.
"The day they named me principal," the 1998 South Putnam High School graduate said, "was one of the proudest days of my life.
"Apparently the superintendent and the community felt I was up to the task."
And he has been, even though he hasn't tried to be Alan Zerkel.
"For the past 21 years, the principal has been taller, probably better looking and definitely a better writer," Chew told the commencement audience last month. "I apologize, but today you are stuck with a short, overweight, prematurely graying first-year principal.
"Since being named principal of North Putnam High School, I have received one question more than any other: 'Well, are you going to give the Zerkel speech?'"
The "Zerkel speech" was his predecessor's one-of-a-kind remembrance of the class in which he managed to work in the names of every graduating senior each year.
"I'm not trying to fill his shoes," Chew assured. "He was here for 21 years. I have to make my own shoes. But I want to continue this school on its upward trend.
"It's all about what we can do to make our school better for the students," he added. "We think our school has lots to offer. Even though we are a rural school, we have very diverse backgrounds and our students come from various different experiences."
Chew credits a back-to-basics approach with putting North Putnam on the right track.
"I like to say, 'We're not trying to do anything fancy,'" he said. "We don't have one-to-one yet but we will eventually. We tried to slow things down and focus on having our students perform well. We've gone back to basics and we've concentrated on putting good teachers in our classrooms to institute the best learning practices we can."
Judging by the outcomes, that formula appears to be working.
Chew, however, is the first to say the school can do more. He can do more. And he's focused on doing that.
"My focus for the coming year," he said of his second year as NPHS principal, "will be to spend more time in the classroom, assisting the teacher or assisting students, helping the staff become better teachers and the students become better students."
But the job of principal has various requirements that can take him away from the classroom, Chew laments.
"Every call I get takes me out of the classroom," he explained. "But we have to be accountable to the public, to parents. Too often I get pulled out of the classroom by a text that says, 'I need you in the office.' I've got to do a better job of being in the classroom and put a system in place that will enable me to do so."
Chew has spent 11 years at North Putnam, serving five years as assistant principal, a year as NPHS dean of students as well as four years as a special education teacher. He's had time to experience what makes the school special and productive.
"There are also many programs and groups that help our students learn more than just in the classroom," Principal Chew stressed.
Some of those elements that have helped make North Putnam such a success, he proudly says, include:
-- FFA. "Our most successful organization is our FFA. Our FFA had the District 7 president come our of our chapter this past year. We also saw two state winners at the State Convention last week at Purdue."
-- Choir. "Our choir has been one of the best in the area for the past several school years. Mrs. Kelly Caudill does a wonderful job with our choir members."
-- Band. "Our band is looking to continue to grow and develop. Director Matt Wargel does a great job getting students involved in marching band, drumline and winter guard."
-- Athletics. "Our boys' golf team won a team sectional for the first time in school history this past spring, and we have just hired a new athletic director for the 2015-16 school year."
Chew also believes the students appreciate that North Putnam High School is a place where they are all welcome.
"I think they feel like this place is home, and that it's a safe place," he said.
The North Putnam school district has also become home for Chew.
"I live in the district," he said. "I live in this community. And some of our (former) students have kids who are growing up right alongside mine."
While Chew was quick to say he wouldn't try to replicate the so-called Zerkel speech, he most assuredly has picked up some traits of his predecessor.
"Alan and I believe in building relationships with the students," he said. "It's important that the students here know people care about them, because we do.
"It's all about the kids," he added, "and not just the popular kids or the good students. All our kids."
The Class of 2015, meanwhile, kept a senior tradition going at North Putnam this spring, despite the changing of the guard at the top of the NPHS administration. After giving Zerkel numerous gag gifts over the years as they walked across the stage at graduation, the 2015 class targeted Chew for the same dubious distinction.
"They gave me those glow-in-the-dark necklaces," he said of the plastic products popular at concerts and amusement parks.
"I don't know the significance of them," Chew acknowledged. "Maybe they think their future's so bright ..."
Who knows. But that would fit perfectly with everything else going on at North Putnam.