Rymfire Elementary and Indian Trails Middle School have lost two popular principals to benefit the district office’s gain and take their place in the superintendent’s reorganized administration.
Rymfire’s LaShakia Moore and Indian Trails’ Paul Peacock are taking executive roles at the district office. Their replacements have not been named. That search has just begun and will include input from teachers, staff, and parents.
Moore, the principal of the year in the district in 2019, spent 14 of her 17 years as an educator at Rymfire, the last three as principal. She was elevated to Director of Teaching and Learning for the district. The position is somewhat similar to that of curriculum director, a position long held by Diane Dyer, who is retiring in a few weeks and had been Moore’s boos for a time.
Dyer’s position was eliminated, as were all executive directors’ positions, as part of Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt’s reorganization. The school board approved that plan last month. (See the reorganization chart below. It is no longer a draft.)
For Moore, it’s a return of sorts to the district office: she was briefly a curriculum specialist at the district office from 2017 to 2018. Reporting to Dyer at the time, it was Dyer who recommended Moore to the principalship, describing her as “a natural leader who is thoroughly committed to raising the academic achievement of all students. She is the poster person for a career lattice, since she has been a classroom teacher, a lead teacher, an intervention teacher, a teacher support colleague and a curriculum specialist.”
A 2004 graduate of Bethune-Cookman University, where she earned her B.S. in Exceptional Student Education, Moore began teaching at Rymfire the year of her graduation.
Paul Peacock, the folksy principal who’s led Indian Trails Middle School since 2011 (posting the district’s longest streak for an A School along the way), and the district’s administrator of the year in 2018, was elevated to Chief of Operational Services.
“Paul’s operational knowledge is one of the reasons why I believe he’ll be an asset to all our campuses,” Mittelstadt was quoted as saying in a release. Peacock will oversee the Director of Plant Services, Director of Transportation, Director of Food Services, Director of Custodial Services, and the Flagler County Youth Center director, all of whom will report to him. Peacock will report to Mittelstadt.
“My years at Indian Trails have been the most rewarding and fulfilling time of my 31 years in public education,” he said. “I will deeply miss the time spent with the best team of professional educators, students, and families I have ever known. In moving forward, I am honored to have the opportunity to support the mission and vision of Superintendent Mittelstadt and the School Board in my new role. Go, Team Flagler.”
The Chief of Operational Services position is not quite at the level of assistant superintendent. One person holds that title: Bobby Bossardet, who is assistant superintendent of academic services, and to whom Moore will report, as will the director of exceptional student education, the director of student services and the director of Flagler Technical college.
“LaShakia has worked diligently with parents, teachers, staff, and students to make [Rymfire Elementary] an inclusive campus for all types of learners,” Mittelstadt said. “That collaborative spirit will serve her well in this new position.” Moore has been a teacher and academic coach in previous roles.
“Though I am sad to leave my Rymfire family, I am excited for the opportunity to advocate for all students of Flagler County,” she said.
Moore graduated from Bethune-Cookman University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in exceptional student education and earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from St. Leo University in 2017. In Peacock’s more than three decades as an educator, he served as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, and principal. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from Stetson University and a Masters in Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Mittelstadt’s reorganization, a district spokesman said this evening, reduces the number of central office positions but lifts their pay while reducing central administrative costs by $166,453, according to fur presented by the finance director at a worship last month. The goal is “to have a larger percentage of budget go to the schools,” the spokesman said.
