Menu
Retiring Zerkel
ROACHDALE -- At 8 a.m. on Friday at North Putnam High School, retiring principal Alan Zerkel remained busy as ever going into his last few weeks as principal.
Students trickled into the office asking to speak with him, parents waited patiently for a turn with the man and Zerkel was fielding phone calls in his office all the while.
Zerkel maintains a selfless humility after four decades working in education.
"I'm just a guy that comes to work every day," Zerkel said with shyness akin to talking to young boy about girls, "I'm just very fortunate to be able to work with the quality of people we have on our staff."
If he'd been standing, one would expect Zerkel to be staring down at his shoes, kicking little rocks with a swinging leg, obviously preferring not to be the center of attention for "just doing his job."
And while he has seemingly "just done his job," he's also made an impact beyond the duties required of the position.
His warm and friendly demeanor is an unwitting charm and it's clear why students and faculty alike will miss Mr. Zerkel.
He is interested, friendly and playful with students as he passes them in the hallway, pretending to scare a high school boy walking through a set of double doors, asking a female student about her speedy recovery from an injury and teasing a student in the main office, asking the young man, "have you washed all my dishes yet?" as he passes the front desk.
It's clear the students get a kick out of his interest and his energy, each of them putting on large, effortless smiles from the interaction.
Zerkel has spent 40 years in education, having taught speech, English and directing plays in his early career.
He started on this path studying English, speech and U.S. history at Manchester College. He received a master's degree from Purdue and a Specialist in Education certification from Indiana University.
Along the way, Zerkel left the education field and spent several years working as a human resource manager before deciding to return to education.
While there was nothing wrong with the job, it hit Zerkel one day while in the Netherlands for work that he missed teaching and he missed the kids.
When he returned from his trip he began looking at positions, applied at North Putnam High School and was named the new principal in 1993.
And he's been there ever since.
Having spent 20 years cultivating an important role in the lives of the young people (not to mention the faculty) of North Putnam, Zerkel admits that it will be very difficult to say goodbye, despite having absolute confidence in his successor, Assistant Principal Jason Chew.
Zerkel points out that the success of a school does not lie on the shoulders of just one person, but on the multitude of teachers, volunteers, community, parents, students and everybody involved with the school.
"A lot of times they really don't get credit for what they do and they do a great job, they absolutely do a great job," he insisted.
With graduation in the coming week, Zerkel said he's got one more week of school, then another week or so to finish things up and that his last day will be sometime in June.
"And then I really want to get things turned over to Mr. Chew as quickly as possible so that he can get started," Zerkel said confidently, "Mr. Chew is going to do a fine job."
Having expressed the importance of the school working together as a team to achieve success, Zerkel also spoke fondly of the memories of his time at North Putnam.
"A lot of the memories, like working with the staff, has just been phenomenal, you learn so much," Zerkel reminisced, "watching students succeed in the classroom, that student who starts out with relatively low grades and then all of a sudden decides to kick it in in the 10th-grade year, it's just amazing."
Zerkel also remembered a young man who was barely able to walk from a head trauma and who, despite spending most of his time in a wheelchair, promised Zerkel that he would walk across the stage to receive his diploma.
"The year he graduated, he walked across the stage. It was just phenomenal," Zerkel remembered.
In addition to these memories, Zerkel continually spoke about the experience of watching young adults discover skills, talents, abilities and potential that they either never knew they had or that were cultivated with great success in their time under his purview.
"Just watching kids do some things that they don't think they can do, then they realize that they can, it's just neat!" Zerkel said happily.
When talking about what comes next, about what he will do when that day comes to turn out the lights and walk out the door one last time, Zerkel does great justice to his sincere humility, only half-joking when he says "Well, I have a lawn that needs to be mowed about four times to get it down to where it ought to be," through a chuckle.
"I know it's time to retire," Zerkel said soberly.
He explained that once he retires he will give incoming principal Chew some space, staying away from the school for a while to allow Chew to get started on his own two feet, although he swears he isn't going to just disappear.
"I'll be back, I'm not going to forget North Putnam at all, I'll be in the community," Zerkel promised, "I'm certainly going to follow extra curricular teams and academic progress."
"I've really felt honored and blessed to be a part of North Putnam and it is going to be hard so I may sneak into some ball games. I'll be way back in the back, 9:30 at night with sunglasses on," Zerkel said musing on his potential disguise.
If the playfulness and sincerity of Zerkel from one Friday morning can be used to forecast the potential impact he has made over the last 20 years in Putnam County, it's easy to imagine how difficult it will be for the school, as well as Zerkel himself, to say goodbye in those final hours, to turn off the lights on that day in June.
"I know I'll miss people," Zerkel said, as if there was any doubt about that fact.
For now though, Zerkel has plenty to keep him busy at his desk in the coming weeks.
He has a final graduation to prepare for, a final "Zerkel commencement speech" to rehearse, a final series of going away gifts from the graduating class and of course, a disguise to begin working on.
So next year if you're at a North Putnam ball game and you see a figure moving in the shadows, wearing big black sunglasses with a baseball cap pulled down low and covered in grass clippings, go say "hello," you may just find a familiar, smiling face.