BROOKVILLE — On thing you can say about Brookville High School Principal Jason Stephan – he keeps his promises.

Stephan, in his first year as the BHS principal, issued a challenge to his students.

“I challenged the students to a competition among their home rooms,” Stephan said.

The challenge: raise more than $1,000 in a week for the Pink Ribbon Good organization in Dayton and Stephan will spend the night on the school’s roof.

The challenge was all the high school students needed to hear.

When the week had ended, the students raised more than the $1,000.

In fact, Stephan said the students more than doubled the challenge goal.

“They met the challenge by quite a bit. They raised more than $2,229.” Stephan said.

“That was quite an accomplishment. I’m really proud of them,” Stephan added.

The more than $2,229 raised by the students was definitely enough money to put Stephan on the roof over his office for the night.

And true to his word, Stephan, on Sunday, Sept. 17, climbed up to the roof and spent the entire night.

How did he get onto the roof?

“My wife and kids helped me bring a ladder from home and I climbed up,” Stephan said at the Sept. 18 board of education meeting.

Stephan said his family removed the ladder from the building once he was safely on the roof.

Stephan said he didn’t want the ladder to remain at the building so no one else would climb up.

Stephan joked saying the ladder was really removed by his family to make sure he didn’t climb back down when no one was around.

But Stephan had no intention of leaving the roof.

He made a promise and he was going to honor that promise.

So he set up a tent on the roof and brought a sleeping bag with him, which he said came in handy because it was very chilly up there that night.

Stephan said in addition to the chilliness, he also had to endure a little rain while he was camped high off the ground.

But despite the weather, Stephan said it really wasn’t that bad spending the night on the roof.

When the night was over, Stephan, from his lofty position on top of the building, greeted the students as they arrived for school on Monday morning.

According to Stephan, the challenge to the students was issued to help them understand the importance of getting involved in the community.

“We want our kids to buy in and understand the importance of leadership and helping out their community and try to make a difference,” Stephan said.

“They did a great job on that,” Stephan said.

Reach Terry Baver at [email protected].