It seems as though NC has come alive in the last couple of weeks. The one evident change from last year is leadership.
New principal Jagga Rent is here and ready to build culture. Rent comes from his former job as principal at HSE Intermediate Junior High.
Rent frequently walks through the hallways, greeting teachers in their classrooms. He was also recently featured in the IndyStar, passionately cheering for a touchdown during the football scrimmage on Friday.
“I’m not going to be in my office. I’m going to be out and about, building relationships,” Rent said, “that’s how you build the culture. That’s how you know what’s going on.”
One of the key attributes to a successful principal is being actively involved in the community. The more students and families see the principal, the more trust and appreciation they have for them.
“I’m going to be at all the games, all the performances and meeting parents,” Rent said.
Parents, like students, have a clear vision for how they want the school to run. Building strong relationships will be crucial to Rent’s success.
Rent knows how to please the community. He comes from a long career of administration at both the middle school and high school level, but it didn’t start that way for him.
Rent attended Ball State for college. He started his career as a teacher and aspired to be a basketball coach.
Now, looking back on his goals at the beginning of career, it is crazy for Rent to think about how far he has come. Now, Rent is working on getting his doctorate from Ball State, his third degree, or, the “hat trick” of degrees as Rent puts it.
“Back then if you wanted to be a coach, you had to be a teacher, so I became a teacher,” Rent said.
Rent followed that path for a few years, working as a coach and a teacher. He won a state championship with Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, but that same year, he surprisingly began working as an administrator and had to give up coaching.
“I was a teacher at a charter school, and the principal that was there was about to leave to start her own school,” Rent said, “she told me, ‘next year I want to focus on having my time to building and developing my own school, I want you to be principal half-time when I’m not there.’” Rent said.
When that principal pitched her plan to the superintendent, he fired her and promoted Rent to principal.
“Sometimes I tell people, I didn’t choose to be a principal, it chose me,” Rent said.
Now, Rent has been in administration for 14 years, but he has taken up refereeing to make up for his lost time as a coach.
He even refereed a number of NC games.
“I’ve reffed a ton of NC games over the years,” Rent said, “This is a special place for me.”
Now that he is principal of NC, though, Rent is hanging up the whistle. He can now experience the NC games as a proud principal.
“I don’t have to drive out to Western Boone or Putnam anymore,” Rent said.
As Rent transitions into his new role as principal, he is setting high standards for himself; however, it is the students he wants to see step up as well.
“I think the real culture is based on the kids running the show,” Rent said, “I want to get the conditions right for students to feel like they can make change and advocate for themselves.”
Despite NC’s history of administrative turnover, with three principals in three years, Rent is confident and ready to face the challenges ahead.
