By Lorraine Thompson, special to the St. Augustine Record
After working 44 years in the education field, most of which have been with the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, it’s time for Kathy Boice to move on.
Boice, who is currently principal of Cathedral Parish School, will retire in early July.
Actually, this will be Boice’s second “retirement.”
“After teaching for 16 years and serving as principal at two schools for a total of 21 years, I decided to retire in 2014. But that didn’t last long. Guess I got restless,” she said from her home at World Golf Village.
Boice began her career in education at Garrett High School in Garrett, Indiana, where she taught business education classes. After relocating to Florida, she continued her career at Jacksonville’s Bishop Kenney High School where she taught for 16 years. In 1992 she became principal of Resurrection Parish School and in 1999 she served as principal of St. Paul’s Catholic School, both located in Jacksonville.
After her first “retirement” in 2014, Boice soon became assistant to Diocese of St. Augustine Superintendent Pat Bronsard for a year before assuming the role as principal at CPS.
Located at 259 St. George St. in St. Augustine, the school opened its doors in 1916 and was staffed by Sisters of St. Joseph. When Sister Mary Victor Azar retired in 2005 after serving as principal for 21 years, Janet Morton became the first lay principal. In 2010 Todd DeClemente became principal and served until 2015 when he moved on to become principal of St. Joseph Academy. Boice became principal of the school that now has an enrollment of 225 students in Pre-K through eighth grades.
Father Tom Willis, pastor of Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, named Deacon Bryan Ott to become the new principal effective July 1. Willis, who along with representatives of the Diocese of St. Augustine’s Offices of the Superintendent for Education and Human Resources, and three local persons, served on the interview committee.
“We worked collaboratively in both the search process and then conducted official interviews to determine the best candidate for the position,” he explained.
