Rowe was born and raised, along with his younger sister, in Charleston, Missouri by his mother, Margaret, and his father, Terry. Margaret was a kindergarten teacher for 30 years, and her husband Terry was a superintendent. Charleston, Mo. was a small farming community, similar to Huntley about 10 years ago. He attended Charleston High School, only about 400 students at the time, and graduated in 1998 with a class of 88 students.

Following his high school graduation, Rowe attended South Western Missouri State University, then Missouri State University, in Springfield, Missouri. He majored in History Education and graduated in 2004.

“I swore I wasn’t going into education when I first started,” said Rowe. “But it was something that I was good at and I learned to love it later.”

Rowe has a wife named Marissa, and they have been married for the past seven years. He and his wife have two children, Carson and Jillian.

It is hard to think of teachers and faculty having hobbies and interests outside of school, including Rowe. But he spends his time outside school like anyone else does.

Rowe is your average dad and family man. After school, he picks his kids up from their babysitter and goes home. He eats dinner with his family all together, and then spends time with his kids until he puts them to bed.

On the weekends, Rowe enjoys spending his free time golfing, playing with his young children and enjoying the time to relax.

“My son told me my favorite color’s gotta be green, because it’s his favorite color.”

With young kids, Rowe is very involved and loves spending as much time with them as he can, he even coaches his son’s soccer team.

He also likes to watch sports, his favorites including football and baseball. His favorite teams include the Bears and Notre Dame for football, and the Cardinals for baseball.

On the occasions that Rowe has time to sit down and watch TV or a movie, he tends to gravitate towards “Hawaii Five-O,” “Chicago Fire,” “Braveheart,” “The Departed,” “Christmas Vacation,” and “Caddyshack”.

“The first place I taught was Knobnoster, Missouri, K-N-O-B-N-O-S-T-E-R,” said Rowe.

This would be the first place in the four districts Rowe worked at. Following his teaching job in the small Missouri town, he made the move from his home state to Illinois so he could find a new teaching job.

Rowe then went on to teach in McHenry at West Campus, which had a “Warrior Nation”, similar to Raider Nation at Huntley High.

“To see [the same thing] happening here is just fantastic, it’s awesome,” said Rowe.

Following West Campus, Rowe became an assistant principal at Parkland Jr. High. Then, he moved again with his family to Huntley to become the principal at Marlowe Middle School for two years.

2013 is only Rowe’s third year in District 158. Being new to the district and his job as principal, he is aware of how rare that is, especially since he is young to be in his position.

As for his plans at Huntley High School, Rowe has them with no shortage of high hopes. His goals, while mostly long term, are to improve the school overall academically and morally. He wants to keep the rise in ACT scores going along with Huntley students’ many academic achievements.

“We offer 20 AP courses, which is great,” said Rowe.

With all those classes he would like to see more fours and fives as scores, rather than ones and twos.

“My goal for HHS is that every graduate has the tools that they need to be a successful person in our society in whatever direction they wish to take their life,” said Rowe. “I want us to build programs that offer everyone an avenue to find success, whether that be in college, the healthcare field, manufacturing, or immediately entering the workforce by focusing on improving our school’s ACT scores, that allows us to gauge how well we are preparing our students for college and life beyond high school in general.”

One thing Rowe really loves about Huntley High School is Raider Nation.

“School spirit was something that was very important to me where I grew up,” said Rowe. “It was such a fun experience to have something like that and those memories.”

He is proud to be a part of our school and has pride in it, but he wants to see more school spirit in every day.

“If you walked into our high school, you probably wouldn’t even know what our mascot is,” said Rowe.

He wants to see red and black around the school in addition to school spirit.

“I want to make people come back for their Homecoming game because they’re proud to have come from Huntley High School,” said Rowe.

Besides looking forward to his goals, Rowe looks forward to everyday life at the school. When asked what he most looks forward to, he responded with “the unknown.” He likes his job because he does not know what to expect every day.

“[Huntley High School] is the crowned jewel of the district,” said Rowe.

With all the plans, hopes, aspirations, and goals going into his career at Huntley High, Rowe is using this year to “survive and learn,” he said. This year is about learning the ropes.

“I don’t want to change what the school is about, I want to help it grow,” said Rowe.

Despite all this positivity, he admits a downside.

“The toughest part is I haven’t gotten much time to sit down and talk here with kids,” said Rowe.

Rowe is a normal guy; he has a family and participates in the community. He watches sports and TV shows to relax like everyone else. But he also cares tremendously for Huntley High School, and has big plans to only make the school better. Rowe wants to get to know the students and staff of Huntley High School. Do not be afraid to say hello or introduce yourself or just simply a smile or wave.

“I want people [here] to know who I am, but it’s hard with three thousand people.”

It’s 6:40 a.m., Scott Rowe pulls his shiny black car into the front staff parking lot of Huntley High School.  He enters the building, and as he passes the secretary she gives him a smile and says “good morning.” Rowe continues down the hall to Student Services, then enters his office and sits down in his black desk chair.  He logs onto his computer and starts to prepare for the day, hoping to check the building before the day starts. As this all happens, he cannot help but to think how great it is to have finally found a school he wants to call home for the rest of his career.

Everyone see him at least once every day in the halls, at lunch, or maybe even in class, and just think about whom he is. Not a lot comes to mind, but he wants that to change. It is finally time to get to know Principal Rowe.