George Moore, Texarkana Independent School District assistant superintendent, is retiring effective Dec. 31, according to press release. Moore was also named as the district's 2020 Hall of Fame recipient.
Moore's TISD career began in 1971 when started as a Texas High School biology teacher.
He remained in that position for 14 years and then took on the position of Westlawn Elementary School assistant principal in 1988. During the 1989-90 school year, Moore served as principal of 15th Street Elementary School and then took over Pine Street Middle School from 1990-2000 as principal. Following his time at Pine Street Middle School, Moore took on the role of assistant superintendent for campus operations from 2001-2003.
In 2003, TISD called upon Moore to add to his current duties the role of Texas Middle School principal because of his senior leadership and his natural ability with students and parents. What was to be a three-year position turned into six years.
In 2009, Moore left TMS and moved into the position of assistant superintendent of alternative education, overseeing the OPTIONS Academic Alternative High School, Elementary and Secondary District Alternative Education Program (DAEP) along with the Therapeutic Intervention Learning Center.
Moore's retirement was recognized at Tuesday's meeting by TISD Board President Fred Norton, Jr. and Superintendent Paul Norton.
Growing up in Marshall, Texas, Moore told the Gazette in 2004 that he never thought he would become an educator.
"People said I was going to become a minister," he said, recalling the days when, at 14, he taught Sunday school at Oak Hill Baptist Church in Marshall.
Education was encouraged and emphasized when he was young.
"Education was key in my home. My dad had a third-grade education but a Ph.D. in wisdom. Mom had an 11th-grade education but you would think she graduated from Yale. They had a lot of common sense.
"They knew exactly what it was going to be like without a higher education in life. That's why it was paramount we got an education. I can hear my mother's voice now: 'I didn't have an opportunity to go to school but you guys are going to go to college. I don't know how I'm gonna pay but you're going.'"
Moore paid for college himself, cleaning offices and running errands at SWEPCO with his first cousin, Thomas Moore.
In 2004, he received the Principal of the Year Award from the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals.
"I am having a lot of fun. I am having as much fun today as I did the first year I taught school," he said at the time. "We are a team here. This is a dynamic team and I don't think you'll find a stronger team anywhere."
In May 2017, he was appointed to serve in Texarkana College's at-large Place 7 trustee position that was vacated by Terry Taylor. Moore served until Dec. 31, 2018.
In 2004, Moore also shared with the Gazette some musings on retirement.
"I hate that word 'retire.' I can remember old mules and animals we had that when we retired them (on our farm) it was almost the end of their life. I don't want to look at it that way. I don't know what God has in my future, but right now I'm enjoying doing what I'm doing. I plan on redirecting one day but not retire, he said.
"I have had opportunities to do other things that paid much more money but I would do this all over again. I have no regrets."