WINDSOR – Three schools will be affected by administrative changes made Tuesday night by the Bertie County Board of Education.

Windsor Elementary School and Bertie High School will each have new principals while Bertie Middle School will lose one assistant principal and gain another.

Karen Rodman will take over the reins as principal of Windsor Elementary School following the retirement of Renee Duckenfield. Rodman served as Assistant Principal at Bertie Middle School until her appointment.

“Karen provided strong instructional leadership at Bertie Middle School during her time there,” said Bertie County Schools Superintendent Dr. Chip Zullinger. “She can bring those skills to Windsor Elementary School to build on what Mrs. Duckenfield accomplished during her time there.

“The board’s decision will help continue the strong academic achievement we’ve been seeing at Windsor Elementary,” he added. “Mrs. Rodman will bring a lot of energy and new ideas to the school.”

The opening left at Bertie Middle School will be filled by Calvin Moore, who was transferred from his position as Principal of Bertie High School.

Dr. Zullinger said the move to shift Moore to the Assistant Principal position was economically driven.

“A big part of both moves is the economical distribution of our administrators,” he said. “We needed to reduce the number of administrators in our district as much as possible.”

Dr. Zullinger explained the district has more administrators than necessary for one of its size. He said while some of it was driven by the use of two campuses for the four county high schools, the number had to be reduced when possible.

“The other part is Mr. Moore’s extraordinary ability with kids,” Dr. Zullinger said. “He has the ability to influence these young people at a formative age and we think that is very beneficial.”

He said Bertie Middle School Principal Sandra Hardy is an “excellent instructional leader” and that Moore, who is relatively new to administration, would gain much from working with Hardy.

“She will help develop Mr. Moore in administration,” Dr. Zullinger said. “We felt like the two of them made a great administrative team.”

Dr. Zullinger said Hardy had led Bertie Middle School to academic success and that the addition of Moore to the administrative staff would help make the school even better.

With Moore’s departure from Bertie High, the board expanded the duties of STEM School (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics) Principal G. Fisher Mitchell to include the entire campus. That encompasses not only the STEM School, but Bertie High which currently houses grades 11 and 12.

“During his time as Interim Principal last year, Mr. Mitchell and his team did an outstanding job at the high school,” Dr. Zullinger said. “We are certain that he and his staff will continue to provide the strong leadership necessary to continue our success.”