Education is a passion for Shawn Dutkiewicz, the new principal at Chadds Ford Elementary School.

It began when he was young. He said his best friend’s mother was a teacher, and she would have her son and a young Dutkiewicz help set up the classroom in late summer.

“I got to see the dynamic between her and the other teachers and sometimes the kids. That’s the spark that started my interest. Even in high school, wherever I worked, I gravitated toward kids. I really enjoyed kids and thought this would be a great profession, to be able to make an influence with children,” he said. “Every experience I’ve had in the classroom made me feel more and more comfortable and confident that I was choosing the right profession. I love working with kids. For the most part, they are always so happy.”

A Doylestown native who graduated from Central Bucks East High School before getting his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from West Chester University and a master’s in educational leadership from Immaculata University, Dutkiewicz was appointed to replace Mark Ransford in June. Ransford retired in April.

One of his proudest experiences as a teacher was his time at Renaissance Academy, a K-12 charter school in Phoenixville.

“We built the school from scratch,” he said. “The teachers were all in it together, and nobody knew what to expect. In the span of six years there, we grew it to a tremendously successful school. It was a Four-Star school for years in a row.”

Dutkiewicz recalled his first day at Renaissance. The building wasn’t even complete when school started, and he and his mother spent Labor Day weekend putting desks together.

At Renaissance he taught math and science to grades three through five and served as the K-5 science coordinator. He also served as lead teacher, held some supervisory positions, and was the assistant basketball coach for the high school team.

From Renaissance, he went to the Penn-Delco School District as a K-6 math and science curriculum coordinator in 2006. It was there that he fell in love with curriculum work, he said, which led to an interest in administration.

“I had only taught for six years. I know that’s not a long time, but I really loved the curriculum part of it. At the time I was finishing my master’s from Immaculata. The focus was curriculum and instruction. I just loved that, designing curriculum and doing all the profession development,” he said.

When Penn-Delco posted a position for a math and science supervisor, Dutkiewicz jumped at the chance.

“I just got my certification. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect,” he said. “They believed in me. I had just turned 28. I was supervisor for K-6 at four elementary buildings and the sixth grade at the middle school, and I had to work with teachers who had vastly more experience than I did. But I found that most of it was about building a relationship and working together. I just loved that part of it. I just loved it.”

While doing that for two years, he said he was able to see the relationships and dynamics between principals and the students. That intrigued him, because mostly he was just seen as the “science guy.”

There was some controversy in the Penn-Delco district with several position changes, a superintendent being fired, and a school board member arrested. Eventually, an interim superintendent hired Dutkiewicz as the principal for Pennell Elementary School in 2008.

He’s proud of the fact that he was able to take a divided staff and turn it into a body working together for the benefit of the students.

“We made huge strides as a staff. I can’t say I solved every issue, but we built a tremendous staff. We had seven teachers receive regional teacher of the year awards during my time there,” he said.

Pennell also became a Pennsylvania School of Character, and this year was one of 50 schools in the country to be considered a National School of Character. It just missed by two tenths of a point, he said.

“I was really proud of the progress we made at Pennell.”

After six years at Pennell, it was time for another change. Again, the timing was right with the vacancy at Chadds Ford Elementary School.

“Chadds Ford has every resource you could ask for. It has every advantage that a school district and a school could have. For those reasons I think there’s still room, another level that this school hasn’t yet reached,” he said.

One thing he would like to do is get the school to another Blue Ribbon status.

A more immediate goal is to create a more robust public relations and social media status for CFES.

He said he keeps an open door policy and is always willing to talk with teachers, staff and parents.

“If there’s a problem, please approach me about it,” he said.

Dutkiewicz, 37, has been married for eight years and has two daughters, ages 6 and 15 months.