The principle of the matter: Getting to know Principal Dixon

The+principle+of+the+matter%3A+Getting+to+know+Principal+Dixon

It is only fitting that for one of our first feature stories focuses on one of the most important additions to MCHS this year: Principal Jamie Dixon.  Mr. Dixson is a kind, funny person who just wants his students to succeed in life.

We asked Dixon a series of questions in hopes of getting to know him a little better. One of the questions asked was how he would improve upon the school. According to Dixon, “The good thing is that this school [MCHS] is already good.” What can we say? The man knows a good thing when he sees it. Dixon does want to expand upon MCHS’s success by making a few changes. For example, he is meeting with every senior monthly who is failing a course that is required to graduate.  As a principal, he also wants to, “establish a good relationship” with the students at Madison County.  Making AP and dual enrollment offerings strong and allowing more options is another goal of Dixon’s. Some people might be a little closed off about the idea of having a new principal, but Principal Dixon genuinely has his students succeed in mind.

Though we know him only as an administrator, Mr. Dixon had a number of careers leading up to this role.  Upon graduating high school in 1982, Dixon joined the Marines  because he did not think college was for him. However, he went on to graduate from The University of North Georgia in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. “As soon as I got out of college I was a cop for 20 years and then retired,” says Dixon.  In addition to being on a number of task forces, being a cop offered Dixon an important opportunity that would forever change his life trajectory: the opportunity to be a resource officer for a high school in Milton County. At first he was hesitant because he was worried about the image being a school officer might project, but he put in an application nonetheless and was hired to patrol his old high school. He thought this job was really fun, and he found a lot of fulfillment in working around kids. He would occasionally teach a class, which led him to yet another career opportunity: teaching a new program about criminal law. He said “It was such a big group of kids wanting to take the class that they had to hire a second teacher.” He loved teaching so much that he started coaching and then became the athletic director. He taught four classes a day for many years before he became an assistant principal. In 2012 he got hired to be a principal at Jackson County High School.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Before we ended our interview with Dixon, we had to ask about the elephant in the room: the dress code. Anyone who was at MCHS in Dixon’s first couple of weeks knows about the uproar from the student body regarding this set of rules.  One of the first reasons people give when defending a dress code is that certain fashion is deemed “distracting.”  Dixon, however, has a different reason for enforcing these rules: He wants us to learn how to carry ourselves and dress professionally and maturely so that we are more prepared for the real world.  A lot of students were surprised by how he addressed the situation at the beginning of the year.  However, he wants students to understand that the dress code was not pointed at one person or a specific group of individuals.  According to Dixon, “I want to teach a responsible way to conduct yourself and a not responsible way. And yes, of course students took it the wrong way since it wasn’t necessarily enforced before. I wasn’t pointing anything towards girls, and I’m concerned about all of the comments made on the internet.” Mr. Dixion was certainly not trying to cause tension in the school.  He was merely trying to enforce a common set of rules has always been there to help us get ready for life when we get out of high school. Principal Dixon is not here to govern what we wear outside of school like at football games, but he does want us to comply to these rules during school hours – just like we will have to do in our chosen careers.