Chapel Hill High School has added a new member to the administrative team, hiring Ralph Kitley as an interim part-time assistant principal in October.
Kitley served as a principal at Northwest Guilford High School, Southeast High School and GTCC Middle College High School before retiring in March 2020.
He stepped out of retirement, though, to return to Chapel Hill High School, reuniting with principal Charles Blanchard, with whom Kitley worked in the Guilford School system.
“Blanchard’s a good friend of mine, and I got the time now, and it’s something I love doing,” Kitley said. “I love working with students and teachers, and, if we go back, I’ll probably be there on a part-time basis.”
A 6’ 11” North Carolina native, Kitley attended North Rowan High School, where he was a star basketball player, helping to guide the team to a 1986 state championship, before playing center for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Kitley said he was recruited and offered scholarships by both Duke University and Wake Forest University, but chose Wake because he thought he would get the most playing time there. He can even be spotted on the cover of the March 2, 1987 edition of Sports Illustrated, featuring Tar Heel J. R. Reid.
Prior to getting his master’s degree from Gardner-Webb University in school administration and becoming an educator, Kitley played professional basketball abroad.
“The experience I had [playing basketball] was tremendous,” he said. “I got to travel all over. After I graduated, I played professionally in Germany for years, and I enjoyed it immensely. Basketball has taken me places where I would’ve never gone otherwise.”
Though he has worked in several different schools, Kitley said one thing remains constant—the students.
“One thing I’ve learned is that the setting doesn’t really matter that much. You might have different demographics; you might have some differences, but, at the end of the day, students are students.”
Science teacher Rebecca Mason, whose department Kitley oversees, said she has been impressed by Kitley’s adaptability during remote learning.
“He seems like a very kind and understanding person,” she said. “He is very calm and level headed and has been able to appropriately adjust his expectations to match the extraordinary circumstances of this school year so far.”
Blanchard, for his part, has welcomed Kitley into the fold.
“We are so excited to have Mr. Kitley join the administrative team,” Blanchard said. “He is a veteran administrator with over 30 years of experience in education. He works very hard to form positive relationships with students and teachers.”
When not attending to his administrative duties, Kitley can be found cheering for the Virginia Tech Hokies, where his daughter Elizabeth plays basketball and was the 2020 ACC Freshman of the Year.
