Chester is principal, Hawkins to assist
Cole Chester is Mitchell High’s next principal, the school system recently announced. Chester, a veteran educator, takes over for Dylan Johnson.
There’s new leadership at Mitchell High School.
The school system announced this past week that Cole Chester is the next MHS principal and Susan Hawkins is the school’s newest assistant principal.
Hawkins, a Linville native who has spent nearly three decades in the classroom, will assist Chester, who takes over for Dylan Johnson as principal. Johnson replaced Mark Woody in July 2021.
Chester previously spent time teaching at MHS before taking an assistant principal role.
“My time at Mitchell has been some of my best years,” he said. “I look forward to serving as the next principal. We have a great group of teachers and excellent students.”
Chester grew up in Caldwell County and graduated from West Caldwell High. His former principal guided him toward a career in education. He went to Caldwell Community College and transferred to Lees McRae College, earning a degree in K-12 health and physical education.
Chester returned to West Caldwell and served as the detention manager before transitioning to a health and physical education role at Bessemer City Middle where he also coached baseball.
Chester then became an OCS teacher in Patton High School’s exceptional children’s department. Patton was closer to his home. He coached swimming and golf at Patton and worked toward his exceptional children’s certification.
Chester returned to health and physical education with a role at Forest Hill Elementary School. He continued to coach at Patton during that time.
Chester kept looking for a role that would bring him back to the mountains. He found it in the form of an open OCS teacher position at Avery High.
While working at Avery, Chester earned his school administration degree from Appalachian State. Chester is married to his wife Megan and the two have a daughter.
“The Mountaineers have had some remarkable accomplishments over the years,” Chester said. “We will continue to grow as a school and community if we work together in a joint effort to provide our students with a quality education, embrace our culture and work together as one Mountaineer.”