As the 2025-2026 school year here at Jonathan Alder High School begins, students are preparing for fresh opportunities, new routines, and higher expectations. To give insight into what lies ahead for this school year, I sat down with Principal Clint Hayes, who has been the principal of our high school for the past six years after serving as the junior high principal and working as a teacher and administrator in nearby districts. During our interview, Mr. Hayes shared details about new programs, upcoming clubs, and the importance of time management. He also provided advice for this year’s seniors and freshmen to help with their transition to both high school and adulthood.
Q: Where did you go to high school and where did you go to college?
A: I went to high school at a place called Fort Frye High School. It’s in Southeastern Ohio near the town of Marietta. In college, I went to a school called Cedarville University over by Dayton.
Q: How long have you been the high school principal for?
A: I’ve been the high school principal for six years. This is my seventh at Jonathan Alder [High School]. I was the junior high principal for the five years before that, and I was the London Middle School assistant principal before that.
Q: You kind of answered my next question, which was what different jobs have you done?
A: I was a health teacher for 12 years at London. Then I was the assistant principal for two years. Then I was the junior high principal for five. And this is my seventh year as the high school principal.
Q: Okay. What are some new programs that are coming to the school, like the E. L. E. V. A. T. E. program?
A: So the E. L. E. V. A. T. E. program is a program that is getting pre-apprenticeships for students. We also have some work-based learning opportunities, some internship opportunities. The pre-apprenticeships are really cool. I think that we have four kids enrolled right now in a teaching pre-apprenticeship where they’re going to Plain City Elementary and the junior high. Working with the teachers to understand what goes on to try to help them prepare. And another big part of it is to make sure they like what they’re doing because we want to give kids experiences so that they can figure out if this is truly what they want to do with their job and with their career. We also had six new college credit plus classes this year that teachers here at Jonathan Alder are teaching. We’re looking to add at least one more next year and maybe more. But the one that we would add next year would be basically college credit plus speech.
Q: So a speech and debate class?
A: Well, yeah. And I don’t know if the debate goes into it. But it’s more, yes, it’s more of a public speaking college like college credit plus entry level college course that would transfer as one of your general ed. And speech is a class that is typically required in most colleges in the state of Ohio. So we’re going to do that. We have a new online program that allows more flexibility for students. That, you know, a lot of times students in fine arts, if they’re interested in both, can have a hard time working a foreign language into their schedule. So we have this online program now where students can take some online courses through us here at Jonathan Alder if their schedule doesn’t allow it. Now, it’s not really designed for just online learning like, hey, we would rather take this course online when we offer it here. It’s not really designed for that. It’s designed for kids who can’t work it into their schedule because they’ve already got too much going on. Or there’s been instances where we’ve put kids online who do want to do work-based learning or have an intern apprenticeship. So that’s really what the purpose of the online platform is for, is to give more flexibility to students.
Q: What new clubs are coming? Because I know there’s the agricultural club. Is there any more?
A: Right now, nobody has asked me about any. Like, a lot of times they’re student-based. Like last year, the nature club was started. And then this year, we do have the agricultural club that will eventually turn into FFA here. So right now, it’s probably about two or three years out until we actually have FFA and the ag classes here in the building. But, yeah, we do have the agriculture club. A lot of the clubs are student-driven. Like the nature club, for example, was a group of kids who wanted to start that. So they came and just, you know, the process is you ask the principal. And if you find an adult that’s willing to do it in the building.
Q: Does it have to get board approval?
A: If we’re going to pay them, yeah. If we’re going to pay them, we do let the board know. We want them to know everything and be as transparent as possible. But a lot of times, as long as they’re informed and they’re not being paid, it doesn’t necessarily have to be board-approved. We have a student right now who’s looking at trying to get an engineering club started. Engineering and agriculture will be the two new clubs that started this year.
Q: What is some important advice you can give to some students this year?
A: I think probably, you know, with our building really being focused on careers and college readiness, career readiness, and really encouraging students to take classes that will help their career goals, as well as not taking classes just because your friends are taking them. Taking them because it’s what you’re interested in, that can help you grow to reach your career goals.
Q: You mentioned busy schedules earlier. So what kind of time management habits would you recommend?
A: The number one thing that I think kids don’t do enough is get enough sleep. If you get enough sleep, it’s going to help a lot of your time management and those kinds of things. But as far as habits go, keeping a calendar, making sure you follow a schedule, writing things down, keeping it in your phone. But at the same time, I think a big word of advice I would give to kids is to intentionally make time to get off your phone. That will help. You can get stuck scrolling and the next thing you know, you wasted half an hour of your day just by looking at Instagram Reels or TikTok or whatever. So that would be my biggest thing. Get enough sleep, keep a calendar, keep a schedule, and stay organized that way.
Q: Would that also be advice you would recommend to seniors or is there other advice?
A: With seniors, if I was going to give seniors advice, it would be if they don’t know what they possibly want to do, meet with your counselor, meet with your administrators, meet with a teacher that you would like to talk to, talk about it with your parents, to talk about what you might want to do and what direction you’re going. You’re still probably only 17 or 18. So it’s not the end of the world if you don’t know what you’re doing. So make sure that you find something that you want to do with your career that you’re going to enjoy. Don’t go into a job because somebody else wants you to do it or you think that’s what you’re supposed to do. Make sure it’s going to be something that you’re going to enjoy because if you talk to people who don’t like their job, it doesn’t matter how much money you make, it’s not worth it.
Q: I’m going to go to the other end of the spectrum now. What advice would you recommend for freshmen?
A: For freshmen, it would be don’t dig yourself a hole early and make sure that you’re getting your work completed and studying for tests early on your first semester freshman year because once you dig yourself that hole and if you get a D or an F or you lower your GPA, it’s really hard for you to dig yourself out of that hole after you’ve already started off weak. You want to start off strong.
Q: So what challenges do you think students are going to face this year?
A: I think one of the biggest things is just, it goes back to managing their time and making sure that they stay off their phone when they’re at home and when they’re not here in the building and a lot of our students are involved in other activities. That’s one thing we’re really proud of at Jonathan Alder is how many of our kids are involved in extracurriculars whether it’s the arts or athletics and I think making sure that they use their time here at school wisely during pioneer period and during study halls to get the work done and then as well as making sure that you’re getting the school work completed before your extracurricular or make sure you have that time in your schedule to get that work done when you’re at home but make sure you’re getting enough rest because we do start school here awful early.
Q: So you mentioned parents in your advice to seniors, and I was curious–what other roles do parents in the community play in helping students?
A: I think one of the best things about Jonathan Alder is we have such a supportive community and such supportive parents and I think that that is just their number one role is just supporting their students and as school leader we really appreciate the parents and the community here that we have at Jonathan Alder and I think that that is just, you know, like just staying constant. If parents have concerns or they have questions just stay in constant communication. They can, you know, communicate with, you know, teachers and administrators anytime and just, you know, to ask your students questions about school, make sure that they’re staying up to date on their…Canvas, make sure that they see their kids’ grades and things like that and if they…have questions, just ask.
Q: So what is one tradition that you like about this school?
A: Oh man, there’s a bunch. I think probably one of the best traditions that we
have is our fall pep rally for Homecoming week. Mr. Henning and the band do a great job in that and then our coaches and athletes being recognized and it’s just a fun week between the activities, the bonfire, the parade, the Homecoming game, the dance. It’s just a really fun week here at Alder.
Q: Do we have the spirit week for that week figured out yet?
A: I don’t know…the Homecoming advisor sent me an email yesterday to ask me to meet about that next week. So I think that’s probably, she’s probably met with student council and they probably have something for me to approve, but I don’t know what they are yet.
[Editor’s note: the homecoming schedule has now been finalized; see image to the right]
Q: How would you describe the culture of this school in a couple words?
A: Our word for our district this year is connected, and I think that our students and staff do a good job of being connected. I think we do overall have a very positive school culture. I think students here know that the adults in the building care about them and want to see them succeed. And I think that, I think overall it’s a very positive, warm culture that we have in the building where hopefully all students feel… they like coming to school. I mean, I know they don’t. But I think that a lot of kids do look forward to coming and seeing their friends and hanging out and, you know, enjoy most of the classes.
