New Hamilton Southeastern Schools Superintendent Patrick Mapes doesn’t plan to spend all day at his desk. He wants to be seen by students, teachers, cafeteria workers — everyone.
“My goal is every day to be somewhere,” he said. “I tell Denise, my (administrative assistant), ‘I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m going somewhere.’”
Mapes has been “going somewhere” in education for more than 35 years, getting his start as a senior in high school through a special program the school offered.
“I was an athlete and, you know, in a small school, if you’re on the basketball team in rural Indiana, you were kind of important,” he said. “So, they would give me some kids who were kind of struggling.”
Mapes’ family were farmers in Randolph County, east of Indianapolis — he said the area is known for Mrs. Wicks pies. That was the early 1980s, when family farms were going under and Mapes said his father suggested he find a career other than farming.
“I went to Ball State because it was about 35 minutes from home. I could commute and continue to farm and started down the path to be a social studies teacher and a basketball coach,” he said, adding that he chose social studies because he loves history. “I’ve probably read every book you can imagine on (John F. Kennedy) and the wars and (Franklin Delano Roosevelt). I just I love that stuff.”
His first job out of college was in Daleville, kicking off his career in 1988 as a boys basketball coach and social studies teacher. But, he said, he knew he wanted to be an administrator.
“During my senior year of high school, because I was an athlete and I had all the credits I needed to graduate, I worked in the office,” he said. “I was always around the principal, and he would let me make some announcements and I kind of saw that piece of it.”
For his senior picture, Mapes said, he taped his name over the principal’s nameplate and sat at the principal’s desk. It was a joke at the time, but it turned out to be prophetic. After earning his administrative license, Mapes became an assistant principal and boys basketball coach in Knightstown, but soon decided to give up coaching. He later became a principal at Delaware Community School Corp., and then was appointed superintendent.
“I was looking to move more towards Indianapolis,” he said. “An opportunity came to go work at the Department of Education. And so, I went to the Department of Education as the director of licensing.”
Mapes worked in various other roles for the state DOE, but said he missed regular interaction with students. So, in 2016 he became the assistant superintendent at Perry Township schools. The superintendent at the time was ill and Mapes soon took over as superintendent.
In the seven years he led that district, “we became the leading urban school district on iLearn results and we were the first-ever educator-effective school district for the National Institute of Excellence in Teaching, which meant classroom instruction was the best in their network,” he said. “They are in about 38 states, and we became kind of a model showcase for NIT.”
Mapes said the district was the most diverse in the state at that time, with students speaking 84 languages from 78 countries, and more than 75 percent of students qualified for the free or reduced lunch program. He left that job in 2023 because he was ready for something different, and while he technically retired, he said it was only to qualify for some benefits — he never intended to stop working.
“I’m too young to retire,” he said, noting that he’s 59 years old.
For the past year, Mapes helped run Stride, an online school with an enrollment of around 200,000. But, again, there was no “kid time,” and he missed the interactions with students. That led him to seek the HSE position and about two weeks into the job, he said it’s been great.
“You know, if this is the only place you’ve ever received your education, you don’t realize how blessed you are,” he said. “The facilities, the resources and the instruction that I’ve seen is first class. I’m just, like, shaking my head. My poor wife — every night, she hears something new that I’m just excited about that I’ve seen.”
Mapes said moving forward, he wants all HSE administrators to be more visible — attending school events and games. He also is shifting some responsibilities to have a full-time director of student services, for example, where before that position also had some human-resources responsibilities. He said any changes he makes will be focused on helping students.
“I’m just kind of shifting the organization and pulling pieces out that we have and making certain that aligns to a student-first mentality,” he said. “I think that’s what our community will see, and that’s what our teachers will see.”
Managing difficult topics
New Hamilton Southeastern Schools Superintendent Patrick Mapes is aware of debates regarding diversity and inclusion within the school district, as well as other policies enacted or rescinded by the school board. He acknowledged that a district with more than 20,000 students can’t make everyone happy.
“But we’re going to listen and make certain that we make decisions for kids and not for adults,” he said. “The state sets out the curriculum and the expectation of where we should take our children in the school system. We have to make certain that we do our kids right by that curriculum, and that we stay on track and on task with those state standards and not get shied away by what’s happening out in the world.”
Mapes said politics doesn’t belong in school and there are certain things that parents should teach their kids, not teachers.
“We’re not going to do that here. I don’t need that — I don’t need that headache,” he said. “And I just truly think that’s not the role of the school. We’re not in every classroom every day, but we have set out expectations for everybody. The board sets out expectations for me and it’s my job to have settled expectations for the employees that work in Hamilton Southeastern Schools. I have no problem doing that.”
