Brad Hatch

Working together. Jason and Brad Hatch work together in AASD administration. The twins have worked together at many periods throughout their lives.

Working together is nothing new for twin brothers Brad and Jason Hatch. Throughout the majority of their lives, the Hatch duo has been side by side. Today, B. Hatch is the AASD Superintendent and J. Hatch is the AAJHS eighth grade assistant principal.

Though they attended school at the same time, the brothers weren’t in the same sphere, as they were in different classes and friend groups. They started working more closely together in their professional careers working together at their family’s restaurant.

“We’ve always worked together outside of here [the school district],” B. Hatch said. “Our family owned a business… and we worked there. He was my boss there, and now I’m his boss here, so a little bit of quid pro quo. It’s kind of a family affair; we both work here in the Altoona Area School district, and this is our third year now. He sold his business and retired and then got back into teaching. We’ve been working together now for a number of years.”

Through their experience working together at the restaurant, the Hatch brothers learned from each other and their shared experiences.

“We used to own a restaurant called Tim’s American Cafe,” B. Hatch said. “It was sold a couple of years ago. My parents were a part of it, and they decided that they were ready to retire, and Jason was ready to move on to other things and got back into the education business. He very quickly got his administrative credentials and is now one of the principals of the junior high.… It’s cool because we get to share experiences and learn from each other. I think that’s one of the biggest things.”

Both Hatch brothers began their careers in education teaching before working their ways up into higher administrative positions.

“When Jason first started, he was a math teacher at Hollidaysburg, and I’ve worked in the Altoona School District for my entire career teaching science, biology and then moving into administration,” B. Hatch said.

Despite their differences in the administration hierarchy, the Hatches don’t see each other as competition.

“I view my role as simply being like I have a different job,” B. Hatch said. “I have a different role, but we all have the same level of importance. We all have the same level of responsibility in the school district. My duty is to support everyone else in doing what they need to, which ultimately comes down to students: we want to support students… Regardless of the level of leadership, our priorities, in and of itself, are always the same. It’s kids, it’s students, and what we do in that whole organizational framework might be a little different–like what I do day-to-day, how I dress might be different than him–but at the end of the day, our goal is all the same: it’s you guys [students]. It’s all about making sure that you have a great experience and that we’re providing you with what you need to be ready for the rest of your life.”

“I concur completely,” J. Hatch said. “Our focus of what we do is the same. The tasks that we do on a daily basis are definitely different, but as far as leveling of leadership, leadership starts at the top, and our levels the whole way down through this kind of model, Brad represents us as our overall leader.”

Though they are used to working together, being identical twins in the same workplace still poses its own challenges.

“There are a lot of people that don’t realize there’s two of us, and we run into that a lot,” J. Hatch said. “It’s more me being mistaken as him because he knows so many more people than I do, so a lot of time people will think I’m him, and I have to explain later on, ‘Look, I’m not who you’re thinking.”

“We’ve become very accustomed to expecting people to mistake one of us for the other, and not really pretending to be the other one, but not correcting somebody when they think that we’re the other one,” B. Hatch said. “Especially in public when we’re together, I think we’re pretty discernible–you can tell which one is which–but when we’re not together, and you’ve got to guess which one it is, then it’s a little bit more of a challenge.”

In addition to being confused for one another, J. Hatch’s current eighth grade coworkers previously worked alongside his brother, leading B. Hatch to less frequently visit in order to allow his brother to have his own workplace identity.

“I try to stay out of his way as much as possible,” B. Hatch said. “I probably visit the junior high school less frequently than I normally would because I was a principal there, so a lot of the people there still know me as a colleague. They knew me as a teacher, they knew me as a principal and now they’re his immediate work family. I feel it’s important for him to have his own identity in his own space, not to just be Brad 2.0. He’s Jason. I think that’s important. We have our own identities. I think we’re similar in a lot of ways, but I also think it’s important for us to have our own identity, our own presence within our work environment.”

While the Hatch twins are different in who they are, they share many of the same values in their approaches to working with students, and both have been able to learn from their brother in some ways.

“As an administrator, I’ve modeled how I communicate with parents, colleagues, other teachers based on what I’ve witnessed him do,” J. Hatch said. “I’ve watched him during school board meetings, for years I’ve watched his interactions with his principal teams, all of those types of things. I’ve tried to absorb what he’s done and been successful at and incorporated that into how I treat people.”

The Hatch brothers share values in their education styles as well as their approaches to getting through personal events.

“I’ve always stressed with kids: have your person,” J. Hatch said. “Have your person you can rely on no matter what, and lean on that person. When times get tough or when it’s time to celebrate, having that person that’s your best friend is important.”

Ultimately, though working together as twins has posed the Hatch brothers some unique challenges, they have come to value and learn from their relationship as twin brothers.

“Think about being able to live with your best friend and share experiences and ups and downs and all of those kinds of things,” B. Hatch said. “That’s really any siblings, but being a twin is a little bit more unique in that we’re six minutes apart; he’s six minutes older. We have the exact same DNA, so scientifically, we’re the same person. Even though our experiences have been a little bit different, we’ve pretty much grown up the same way. We’ve had a lot of the same upbringing and experiences, and that’s special. That’s something that very few people get to have.”