CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The head of school at Chattanooga Christian School has resigned abruptly, school officials told staff and parents in emails, and Matt Covey and his family have left town.
Covey took over as the school’s top administrator in 2024. In notes to staff and parents, administrators said the school was facing a hard moment. Board Chair Tripp Johnston told families in an Oct. 31 note that Covey chose to leave the post. He pulled his children from class late last week, and the household left the city. They are expected to land in the Midwest, and the household is relocating to Sioux Falls in South Dakota, a place he knows well.
Before this job, he spent five years as the leader of Denver Christian School, a preschool-to-grade-12 campus in Denver’s Reformed tradition. He earlier worked 17 years for Sioux Falls Christian Schools and ended that stretch as the elementary principal. His first post was at Oskaloosa Christian School in Iowa, where he taught middle-grade Bible and history, coached and ran athletics.
His college credentials come from the University of Sioux Falls and include graduate work in district leadership, early literacy and educational leadership, plus an undergraduate degree in secondary education. He is from Hull, Iowa, a small community just across the border from Sioux Falls. CCS ranks among the larger private campuses in the city, and he was chosen after a search that reached across the country.
During his Denver years, student numbers rose and the campus built fresh donor support along with a long-range plan. That planning work was in place before he arrived in Chattanooga for the start of the 2024 school year.
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