By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Like so many things, Daryl Moore's career as an educator was almost an accident. Forty-six years later, he's officially ready to retire - for real this time - after serving out the final eight years of his career as assistant principal at Great Bend High School. Moore will call it quits at the close of the 2022-23 school year, and thanked USD 428 staff for the opportunity.
"I've really enjoyed my eight years here and want to thank the superintendents and the board for giving an old-timer a chance to still make a contribution," he said.
Moore graduated from Clifton High School, now Clifton-Clyde, some 20 minutes straight east of Concordia. Moore went to college so he could teach and coach, but the plan was to go back to the family farm after a few years.
"In the 80s, farming wasn't very good so I stayed in longer," he said. "And then I decided going back to the farm wasn't what I wanted to do, that I wanted to stay here in education."
Moore spent 24 years as a teacher, coach, and principal at Clifton-Clyde, then 11 years as principal at the now-defunct Belleville High School in Republic County. He reached 35 years of service with that job and retired, only to accept the principal job in Beloit.
"My wife needed six more years to retire, so I told them I'd be their high school principal for six years and not a day longer," he said. "I was there six years and not a day longer."
With kids living in Great Bend, the Moores moved to Great Bend just as GBHS was needing an assistant principal. Daryl's wife, Kathy, spent six years as the English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher before retiring last year. Daryl thought he would work a year or two before the stay turned into eight years.
Moore is proud of many things in his tenure at GBHS and beyond. Shortly after he arrived, the district issued Chromebooks to students. "It's a tremendous educational tool for them," he said. "It opens up the whole world and the Internet. It's been a great advantage for them. The kids have taken good advantage of it. By far, the vast majority, well over 90 percent of the kids, only use the Chromebooks for what they're supposed to."
In Moore's tenure, GBHS has also seen a big leap in graduation rates, from 80.6 percent in 2015 to 92.5 percent in 2021. He credits opportunities like computer-based learning and the Independent Learning Center for those improvements.
"Forty years ago, if we were talking about 75 percent we were feeling pretty good about it," he said. "That's been a real nice advantage that we have that we've provided for kids. We have a lot of kids that are able to graduate that way who, if it wasn't for that, wouldn't be able to."
Moore has also been pleased with career-based learning that begins in middle school and transitions into high school. "A lot of our kids, by the time they're sophomores, have a good idea of what they want to be when they get out of high school, and what they have to do to get there, whether that's two years of school, a technical school, or whatever they need to do," he said. "That's a real nice advantage to have that's come around in my last eight years."
Finally, Title IX was passed in 1972 to end discrimination regarding girls' participation in sports. Moore has been pleased to see those opportunities grow, including the addition of GBHS's successful Lady Panther wrestling team.
"They're getting the opportunity to compete and succeed in that area," he said. "I think that's really been something good to see since I started 46 years ago."
With nearly five decades in education, Moore was able to see much of the country with trips to Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Nashville, San Antonio, New Orleans, San Diego, and Branson to name a few. He's attended the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Holiday Bowl.
But one of Moore's favorite memories involved the 'Miracle on Morton' at GBHS's own Memorial Stadium to open the 2019 football season. The Panthers defeated Andover 13-10 in come-from-behind fashion on that September night.
Another favorite memory is simply seeing past students when they return home as they build their lives in college or elsewhere. "I think maybe the best memory I get is, a lot of times after graduation, the kids go off to college and they come back," said Moore. "It's always fun to see what those kids are doing and the success they've had, and how well they're doing, and get to feel like you've had a small part in that."
Moore said the thing he will miss most in retirement is being around dedicated students and staff.
"Great Bend has a great staff, a lot of dedicated teachers," he said. "They work very hard for the students here. The teachers we have now are working a lot harder than the teachers were when I started in the 70s. Our teachers are available to the students almost 24/7 with their Chromebooks, they're answering emails and answering texts, and working with the kids when the kids are available."
The Moores plan to remain in Great Bend with son Preston Moore and daughter Ashley Vanada. With more free time, Daryl plans to do some volunteer work, build furniture, expand his hunting and trapping activities, and continue a new hobby of creating custom hunting knives.