Longtime Sandy Creek High School Principal Roy Rabold will be saying goodbye to staff and the Tyrone community at the end of the school year. Rabold was approved last week by the Fayette County Board of Education to begin duties as the Whitewater High School principal beginning in June. Rabold will replace the retiring Gregory Stillions.
He goes from the high school with the smallest enrollment in Fayette — 1,176 students — to the school with the third-highest — 1,533. McIntosh High in Peachtree City is the school with the largest enrollment in the county — 1,634.
It has been a long run at Sandy Creek, 18 years in total, where Rabold served as assistant principal from 1993-2000 and as principal since 2001.
Rabold said he was asked by Superintendent Jeff Bearden to consider moving to Whitewater, located off Ga. Highway 85 south of Fayetteville.
“And I said I would,” said Rabold. “If he had not asked me I might have stayed here until I retired. And I would have been very happy here.”
Reflecting on his time at Sandy Creek, Rabold gave the credit for the school’s successes to the employees and students and to parents and the community.
“They have been extremely supportive. I think their hard work has been the reason for the successes,” Rabold said. “I’m on automatic here, all the staff do things so well. Sometimes I go home and feel like I didn’t do anything today. I noticed that this year especially.”
Rabold said the Sandy Creek administrative team has been in place for three years and the school experiences little staff turnover.
“I‘m almost like a figurehead, and Sandy Creek will be in good hands with the staff, parents and the community,” he said. “Sandy Creek runs itself. There is a system in place here and the system is working. I have every confidence that Sandy Creek will continue to be successful and operate well.”
Looking ahead to Whitewater, Rabold said, ”I’ve been provided with the opportunity for a new challenge. Whitewater is a good school. There are things I’ll need to learn and some things I might want to change. I want to continue to challenge myself as a professional educator.”
Rabold began his career in 1976 as a Social Studies teacher in Hialeah, Florida. He moved to Georgia in 1981 where he taught Social Studies at North Clayton Senior High School in College Park.
Rabold joined the Fayette County School System in 1987 as assistant principal at McIntosh High School, serving in that capacity through 1992.
It was then that Rabold came to Sandy Creek. He served as assistant principal from 1993 until 2000 and, in 2001, was hired as the school’s principal.
During his more than three decades Rabold and his schools have received numerous awards and recognitions. Among those are the 2006 Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement Bronze Award, the 2004 Georgia School of Excellence, 2003 Newsweek Top 1,000 Schools in the U.S., the Kiwanis award as an Outstanding Administrator, a certificate of merit from the Georgia Education Leadership Academy.
Rabold earned an Ed.S. in Administration and Supervision from West Georgia College in 1990, a Masters of Education from West Georgia in 1987 and a B.A. in History from Florida Atlantic University in 1975.
