Brian Chatard remembers being in third grade and hearing his mom talking on the phone. There was a problem with the plane tickets his parents were supposed to use for a trip to Hawaii. His father had changed the name on his mom’s ticket. He was going to be taking his girlfriend instead.
When his dad came back, he spent a day packing up everything that was his in the house and left. “That was it,” Chatard remembers. “My mom, two brothers and I were on our own from there on out.”
Growing up, Chatard moved four times before he graduated high school. His mother worked long hours to support the family, while he and his brothers did their best to keep things together. Looking back, it’s clear that Chatard’s upbringing plays a role in how he works today as a vice principal.He sees students who come from homes disrupted by divorce and other issues. But because of his experience, Chatard knows those things don’t necessarily have to hold students back.
Chatard, now 41, knew early on that it was up to him to take charge of his life. He knew that he’d be the one who’d have to get motivated in order to avoid being a “weekend alcoholic like all of my brother’s friends.” Today, he has a stable home with a wife, two children and a job where it’s his role to make sure kids head down the right academic path.
“I am always here for students and they need to know that whatever the situation is at home, students are old enough to take control,” Chatard says.
Brian Chatard was born in December 1969 in Costa Mesa, Calif. As a kid, he remembers going with his family to Hawaii during summers. He and his brothers would play baseball in the street and hang out until dark with their friends.
After his parents split up, his mom and his brothers packed up all of their stuff and moved to Los Angeles. He remembers smog alerts and not being able to go outside. He wanted to go back to Costa Mesa, but soon the family was on the move again in another direction – this time to Spokane.
“I remember hearing from my mom that my grandparents were going to take care of us,” Chatard says now.
He never understood how his grandparents would take care of him and his brothers since his grandfather suffered from schizophrenia. Two years later, his grandparents moved to California. Chatard longed for sunny days and a beach that was close by. “We had enough of being alone and moved back to California,” he says.
He yearned for a father figure but no one came close until he was in seventh grade. That’s when he started going over to a friend’s house who lived nearby. Her dad was a teacher who taught Chatard. They would have meals and he’d stay for dinner. He spent time there after school and on weekends.
It was the first stable experience that Chatard had since the divorce. It was also a way for him to stay out of trouble. “The kids in Oji were always getting into trouble and drinking on the weekends,” Chatard says. “I was high achieving and I did not fit in with the kids there.”
The calm didn’t last as Chatard’s mom picked up the family and moved again, this time to the San Francisco Bay area. “It was the best place for me – by far the best move,” Chatard recalls.
After high school, he went to the University of California-Santa Barbara and graduated in 1991. He got married in 1995 to Erin Mair and they moved to Portland in 2003. They have two children, Dylan, 9, and Kendal, 11.
Dylan says he and his sister like to go to movies with their dad. Sometimes, he gets to tag along and play when his dad goes golfing. He drives them to their soccer games and supports their activities.
“He’s a great dad and the kids love him because he is the fun parent,” says Erin Chatard. “Since Brian didn’t have a strong household growing up, he does everything that he can to make that true for the kids.”
At Grant, Chatard recently became the vice principal in charge of scheduling and academics. “It is very different from discipline,” Chatard says of the job he held for many years at Grant. “I miss discipline because I got to interact with kids on a more personal level than what I do now.”
Senior Hannah Reynolds remembers seeing Chatard as a freshman and being intimidated. “I was scared of him because he was so tall and always got kids in trouble. But now that I have grown up, I see that he is not this scary man.”
When he was in discipline, he counseled kids who were getting in trouble and in many cases had to deal with the parents of these kids.
“When I saw that these parents were no better than the kids and were not taking any responsibility for their kids’ actions and how they are influencing their kids’ life, I got upset and flashbacked,” Chatard says of his old job. “At that point, I know that I cannot rely on the parents anymore and I have to convey to the student the message that they need to take their life into their own hands and make changes for the better.”
Chatard says he’s not sure what will come next on his career path. He says he questions if there might be something else out there for him to do and he’s not sure he’ll be back at Grant next year. “Is this what I am meant to do in life? I don’t know the answer,” he says. “I love Grant and I love the kids there. I have made positive changes and I hope students see that.”
