Cody Ratliff was introduced to teaching when he took his high school guitar class. He already knew how to play guitar, so he helped teach the other students how to play. This sparked his love of showing people how to do something that he already knew how to do. 

After high school, Ratliff went to Alderson Broaddus University and got a degree in Music Education. After college Ratliff started off as a choir director, working at Van Devender Middle School for his first four years. He then moved to Edison for his last years of being a choir director. As a choir director he directed multiple concerts and three musicals: “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Moana Junior”.

“Those were some of my favorite memories, because I got to watch my middle school theater kids performing for elementary students across the county,” Ratliff said. “Especially a show like that, junior productions, the little kids love them.”

The main reason Ratliff became an assistant principal was for his wife and daughter. Ratliff’s wife was a choir director too and he wanted to find some way he could do more to support her and her goals. The consistent performances and shows would be too hard to handle with their newborn daughter so when Ratliff saw an opportunity to become an assistant principal at Vandy he took it and got the job. He then worked there for two years before Vandy shut down. 

“When Vandy closed, as weird as that sounds, it was very important to me to be the flagbearer to close Vandy down. So for me that place taught me how to be a teacher and it’s teaching me to be an administrator,” Ratliff said. “For me, getting to have the pride and dignifiedly close the place down meant a lot for me.”  

As the new assistant principal over discipline, Ratliff has goals for his students.

“I want everybody here to feel safe and well, and I want everyone here to graduate with a diploma to the best of my ability. So I don’t want you guys to come here with a worry in the world. There’s always high school drama, things that will happen to… girlfriend boyfriend drama or lack thereof, boyfriend girlfriend drama,” Ratliff said. “But at the end of the day, I just want you guys to feel safe here and I want you guys to be able to graduate with a diploma in hand.”