Growing up in Maryland, Jon Fadely, 55, said he spent a lot of his youth in St. Michaels on Chesapeake Bay, “just doing a lot of fishing and crabbing and having a lot of great experiences living in a rural area.”
He eventually attended Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and earned a degree in health and physical education while also playing Div. 2 soccer. Fadely admitted he had some Div. 1 aspirations, “but I was smart enough to know that if I played Division 1, I’d probably sit on the bench.”
Upon graduating, Fadely taught and coached in rural Brunswick County, Va., before beginning what turned out to be a 30-year career in the Lower Merion School District, near Philadelphia.
And now, instead of putting retirement in sight, Fadely has taken on new challenges and responsibilities as the recently hired head of school at Eatonton’s Gatewood Schools, replacing Jeff Decker, who retired from the position after this past school year.
Fadely said, however, his move from suburban Philadelphia to Putnam County isn’t about winding down; it’s about finding the kind of school he always hoped to lead.
“Gatewood is what I’ve always wanted,” Fadely declared last Thursday in his corner office at Gatewood’s recently constructed high school building. “It’s a small school, a private school, a Christian school.”
Despite the distance from Philly, Fadely was already familiar with Georgia’s Lake Country, as he and his wife have owned property in the Lake Oconee area for several years and eventually purchased a home in Reynolds after the COVID-19 pandemic derailed their plans to build here.
As they spent more time in the region, Fadely said he began paying closer attention to Gatewood.
One moment, in particular, stuck with him, he said. He recalled watching an online video during the pandemic about how Gatewood was working to safely return students to campus.
“I saw a video from Jeff Decker talking about social distancing and doing everything he could to get the kids back into school,” Fadely said. “That hit home with me and gave me a taste of what the school is really all about.”
When he later learned that Decker planned to retire, Fadely said the timing aligned perfectly.
Lower Merion is nationally known as the hometown school district of the late NBA star Kobe Bryant and has educated the children of several professional athletes and coaches, including those of current Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Yet Fadely said he found himself drawn to something defined less by prestige and profile and more by purpose.
Though not officially leading the school until this summer, Fadely said he spent months getting acquainted with the campus after being selected by Gatewood’s board last winter. He attended athletic events, school performances, and other activities, taking time to observe rather than immediately putting his own stamp on the school.
“I wanted to finish things ‘the right way’ at my previous school,” he said, while also getting “a good taste for the Gatewood life.”
This deliberate approach reflects the philosophy Fadely said he intends to bring to Gatewood.
“If it’s not broken, you don’t have to fix it,” he said. “So, I definitely don’t want to make any initial changes right away because I know we have a well-oiled machine here.”
Instead, Fadely said he sees his role as preserving the traditions that have served Gatewood well while preparing it for continued growth. One surprise, he said, has been realizing how regional the school has become, serving families not only from Putnam and Greene counties but also from Morgan, Baldwin, and beyond.
As more families relocate to the Lake Oconee area, Fadely said he believes maintaining Gatewood’s culture is every bit as important as expanding enrollment.
“There are some people here who have been here from Day One,” he observed. “There is a lot of rich tradition here that I definitely do not want to lose.”
He said he also wants to strengthen connections within the campus itself, encouraging collaboration among faculty members across all grade levels and disciplines while helping new teachers become part of the school’s close-knit culture.
Based on more than three decades in education, Fadely stressed he believes his leadership isn’t about putting his own imprint on Gatewood. It’s about taking care of and building upon what already exists.
“This is not a place of ‘I’ or ‘me,’ for anyone here,” he said. “It’s a place of ‘we,’ where people love helping out, rolling up their sleeves, and pitching in as a team. So, it’s not much about me; it’s really about a lot of we.”