Everyone needs a dad. Someone who’s there for them, to teach them right from wrong. To greet them in the morning. To cheer them on at football games, school musicals, or symphony performances. For everyone at Highland, his name is Chaddy Daddy.
Highland’s principal, Jeremy Chatterton, is the father figure of Highland. He’s there for students when they need him, showing up to most of the games and events. But he’s also able to enact discipline when he needs to.
He makes Highland feel like Highland.
“He’s got a nice, outgoing, positive personality that kind of makes you a little bit less depressed to be at school,” Lottie Hicks, a junior at Highland, said.
That personality is how he makes Highland a place for everyone. He has focused on making whatever he is a part of, whether that is coaching a basketball team or running a school, a place where everyone can be comfortable being who they are.
“He’s brought vibes,” Hicks said.
And he wants everyone to be proud of whatever he builds.
“It’s very much in my personality to get behind something and create it into something that people are super fans of, like almost compared to a sports team or something,” Chatterton said.
Much of his current drive is shaped by the passion he feels for Highland that’s been built throughout the many years he’s been at the school, first as a math teacher and then as the principal.
“This is my fifth as principal,” Chatterton said. “Before that, I was here for four, so this will be my ninth overall at Highland.”
Chatterton spent his time first as a math teacher and the girl’s basketball coach before becoming the athletics director and then vice principal, which then led to a stint at West and Dilworth. He came back to Highland in 2020, right as the world was collapsing into COVID.
He’s built the world back up from there.
When students returned to in-person learning, it was the first time they met their new principal. He had to build relationships with students and teachers. He focused on making the Highland name something that was respected.
One of Chatterton’s biggest pushes is the branding of Highland. He’s made Highland recognizable and unified, while still keeping traditions alive.
He’s made Highland a part of the community. He’s pushed to flood the neighborhoods with merch, to unify and standardize everything. Before Chatterton came, there wasn’t even a standard color scheme for Highland. It was up to each sport what colors they used, with the vague suggestion of white and black. Now, there’s a certain shade of white, black, and gold that are our official colors.
Another part of the Highland branding and part of what makes Highland so welcome to all is something very simple. Something so simple that it hasn’t been pushed before.
Something as simple as Go Rams.
“Every time he walks out the door, he says, ‘Go Rams.’ He goes to a meeting, he says, ‘Go Rams.’ He goes home, he says, ‘Go Rams.’ When he’s at home, he says, ‘pass the salt, Go Rams,’” Audrey Bliss, Chatterton’s assistant, said.
Go Rams has become an integral part of Highland’s culture. Everyone knows it, everyone quotes it. It makes everyone a Ram, and a little prouder to be one.
Chatterton’s Highland pride isn’t an act. He’s still just as passionate about Highland at home.
“Anytime I see him outside of school, he has the same exact personality,” Hicks said.
Mikelle Chatterton, his daughter and a Highland junior, knows firsthand that his school persona is genuine.
“If he’s walking past someone and doesn’t know them, he’s going to smile at them and smile at them until they smile back at him. He’s that friendly,” Mikelle said.
One of Chatterton’s biggest struggles in keeping Highland up to date is people resisting change. So, when he tries to modernize and standardize Highland’s branding, there’s pushback. However, by compromising he can get his aims done, while respecting Highland’s traditions.
His goal is to give students everything they need to succeed.
“My job is to set people up for success, and then allow them to finish that off,” Chatterton said. “I would talk about this as a teacher and as a coach. I can teach you how to do the math, I can show you the steps that you need to do it, but I can’t do it for you. As a coach, I can draw up a play to get you a shot, but I can’t make the shot for you.”
None of this is easy. In the past, principals haven’t gone the extra mile as Chatterton has. That’s what makes him more than just a principal. It makes him Highland’s principal. It makes Highland feel like Highland.
“He wants to show up, and he knows how important that is to the kids,” Bliss said. “And he enjoys it. I think the difference between Chatterton and the other principals, and I don’t want to put down the other principals, but it was their job. They did their job and then they went home. Chatterton actually has fun with his job.”
“He wants to be here. He wants to be part of the community, and he wants to take pride in all of that,” Bliss said. “He does take pride in that. It’s more than just a job to him.”
It’s his Highland spirit that lets him have so much fun. This is made clear at most sporting events, band performances, choir shows, or theatre productions. Chatterton attends everything he can.
That means a lot of late nights after being at the school all day.
“He enjoys attending the events. He is the first one to volunteer to go to an art show that the students are putting on. He’s the first one to volunteer to go to state soccer. Those are things that he enjoys,” Bliss said.
Chatterton is a true Ram. He’s an active member in the Highland community, he makes sure everyone feels welcome, and he’s full of Highland spirit. He does all this for us, the students.
“I want the students to feel like, because I do, that I truly care about them and what’s best for them as a father would,” Chatterton said. “But at the same time, you know knowing that, It’s a form of I want to be helpful and positive and all that, but at the same time, I am also the authority in terms of when I have to play that role I need to play that role too. Which isn’t often, but occasionally.”
Chatterton pushes to make Highland a place for all. He’s one of the reasons that Highland is Highland.
