During the last assembly of Double Wolf Dare Week (DWDW), Principal Jason Hayes won the award for Principal of the Year from the Oklahoma Association of Secondary School Principals (OASSP).
During the assembly, Student Council (STUCO) sponsor and history teacher Drew Rosko handed the microphone to Debreon Davis, the Assistant Superintendent of Edmond Public Schools (EPS). Davis announced that Chris Legrand from OASSP selected Hayes as Oklahoma’s Principal of the Year.
“He has been the principal here of this very high-performance school for 13 years,” Legrand said. “We go way back. I got to know him back when I was principal here in Edmond and he’s doing magnificent things for this school.”
This is Hayes’ first time winning an award like this while being principal.
“The only reason that I was probably able to be considered for that is because of the success of our school, our students have been doing an amazing job,” Hayes said.
In prior years, Santa Fe consistently ranked in the top one percent for academic success in schools across the country. When he became principal, Hayes was determined to uphold Santa Fe’s reputation.
“I came into an amazing school and then these last couple of years, we’ve been one of the top high schools in Oklahoma for a large high school,” Hayes said. “I like to think that maybe during my time here, we’ve been able to maintain a level of excellence of keeping our school relevant, keeping our school successful.”
Hayes has impacted Santa Fe in more ways than one since becoming principal. Some of those achievements include getting an A on the state report card for being a 6A class school, maintaining academic success and growing one of the largest AP programs in Oklahoma. He is prepared to continue the high success rate the school has as the years go on.
