Chad Flatt

Pickens Junior High School
Pickens County School District
Jasper, Georgia
chad.flatt@cherokeek12.net

Chad Flatt has served Pickens Junior High School (PJHS) as its principal since 2018, having previously served as assistant principal, interim principal, teacher, and coach. Flatt led the consolidation process for two decades-old middle schools into one junior high serving seventh and eighth grade students. Impressively, Flatt has led PJHS to steady achievement in the wake of this transition and amid major and frequent district leadership changes during his tenure. As an instructional leader, Flatt has transformed PJHS’s PLC model, moving beyond pure coordination to in-depth, high-level discussions on instructional efficacy. In this space, teachers engage in collaborative data review to map out four-week instruction plans tailored to achieve the best results for the school’s high-poverty student body. The results are impressive: In the 2022-2023 academic year, 38 percent of students showed high growth in ELA, while 46 percent showed high growth in math. Flatt leveraged lessons learned from leading the school’s pivot to synchronous and asynchronous learning during the COVID pandemic to increase community and family involvement for the long haul. PJHS now hosts a Humanities Night in the fall and a STEM Night in the spring, which engages with artists, performers, historians, journalists, and business and science leaders to help students draw tangible links between academics and life pursuits. Flatt holds an Ed.D. from the University of Alabama, an M.Ed. from the University of Phoenix, and a Bachelor’s degree from Maryville College.