More than memory

Story by James Byers

Photos by Mary Katherine Leslie

 

Cindi Moore has a talent: She knows everything about you.

Mention anybody connected to the Waco Baptist Academy, and Moore, the principal, can tell you all about that person. Point to any of the schoolโ€™s more than 160 students. Go ahead, pick one.

Moore knows the studentโ€™s name, for starters. But it doesnโ€™t stop there.
Does the student have siblings? Moore knows. She knows their names too, even if they donโ€™t attend the Waco Baptist Academy, the school for kindergartners through eighth-graders that she oversees.

How is the student performing in school? Moore knows, but she might not tell you since thatโ€™s private.

Does she know the studentโ€™s parents? Do you really have to ask?

But how does she do it? As it turns out, Mooreโ€™s uncanny ability to remember personal details isnโ€™t so much the product of a prodigious memory as it is the natural result of repetition and a whole lot of caring. And that didnโ€™t begin at the Waco Baptist Academy.

Moore grew up in Richardson. After watching Baylor in the Cotton Bowl in 1975, she made up her mind about her future.

โ€œI told my mom, โ€˜Iโ€™m going to Baylor or Iโ€™m not going to college,โ€™โ€ Moore said.

She did just that, entering Baylor in 1978 and graduating three years later with a degree in elementary education with a reading specialization.

Her first job was teaching first grade at a Catholic school in downtown Waco.
At the school she observed good teaching, but she also watched things she didnโ€™t ever want to do as a teacher. She learned how not to treat kids.

She soon accepted a job at La Vega Elementary School, and after teaching for seven years, during which she earned her masterโ€™s in educational administration at Baylor, she became the schoolโ€™s principal.

As principal she was discouraged by how much time she had to spend disciplining unruly children.

โ€œI felt like I was spending so much time on discipline that it was very hard for me to be the instructional leader of that campus,โ€ Moore said.

In 1999 Moore received an opportune call from a friend on the board of trustees at the Waco Baptist Academy asking her if she would be interested in the schoolโ€™s vacant principal position.

โ€œAfter my day of visiting with this school, I went home and told my husband that night. โ€ฆ If they donโ€™t want me to be their principal, I want to teach there,โ€ Moore said. โ€œIn my wildest dreams, I wouldnโ€™t have imagined that there was a school like this.โ€

Moore said she was blown away by the schoolโ€™s Christian atmosphere and emphasis on academics. It was the kind of atmosphere she wanted to cultivate.
She was offered the position, and she hasnโ€™t looked back.

In the 12 years since, Moore has been nothing less than the catalyst of change and growth at the Waco Baptist Academy. Enrollment has increased by more than 66 percent under Moore. The school also added a middle school in 2004, and a year later moved to its current location at 6125 Bosque Blvd., a campus upgrade from 1.3 to 5.5 acres.

Three years ago Moore instituted the University Interscholastic League academic competition, a spring event in which the Waco Baptist Academy competes against other local private schools in such areas as reading, writing, speaking, spelling, mathematics and science. The students from the Waco Baptist Academy are always among the top finishers.

As principal, Moore must specialize in a myriad of areas, whether itโ€™s managing the schoolโ€™s finances, reviewing curriculum or interacting with parents, teachers and students. She still finds time to teach Latin to seventh- and eighth-grade students.

Despite her lofty position as head of the school, Moore stands at the front door and welcomes children โ€” by name, of course โ€” into the school. She follows this routine not just on the first day of school, when all the kids clamor to take a picture with her, but every day.

โ€œSheโ€™s usually the first person I see at WBA when I drop the kids off in the morning,โ€ said Brian Serr, a professor at the Baylor Law School who served as president of the Waco Baptist Academyโ€™s board of trustees in 2009-2010 and has three daughters at the school. โ€œSheโ€™s usually holding the door open, greeting every family, every child, as they arrive. And itโ€™s not mechanical โ€ฆ she engages the children in conversation, gives them a hug. Sheโ€™s up to date on certain details about their life, or what their class is doing in school.โ€

Donna Beth Norman, kindergarten teacher, taught with Moore at La Vega and came to Waco Baptist Academy in 2001, two years after Moore.
Norman marveled at Mooreโ€™s knowledge and affection for students.

โ€œShe would do anything for the kids; she loves the kids,โ€ Norman said. โ€œShe knows every kidโ€™s name at the school. She knows every parentโ€™s name. She knows every car the parents drive in the carpool. She can call the kidโ€™s name when she sees the car turn the corner.โ€

Norman also recalled Mooreโ€™s ability to remember phone numbers.

โ€œI wouldnโ€™t say she knows every phone number in the school, but she knows a lot,โ€ Norman said. โ€œItโ€™s a God-given ability that she has. But I think she really puts great effort in trying to get to know the parents and trying to get to know the kids. She wants to know.โ€

The consensus of those who know Moore best is that her impressive memory is the result of her intentional, repeated interactions with students and parents โ€“ and caring enough to remember the conversations.

โ€œTo me itโ€™s less the memory than the willingness to make the commitment of time and energy and contact and conversation that makes her an intimate part in the lives of our students and their families,โ€ Serr said.

Carl Gulley, college pastor of Antioch Community Church and current president of the Waco Baptist Academy board of trustees, said heโ€™s always impressed by Mooreโ€™s memory and friendliness.

โ€œItโ€™s like, โ€˜What database are you referring to get all that out of?โ€ said Gulley, who has three children at the school. โ€œBut it goes beyond that. That just shows you how much she cares for people.โ€

Athletic director and physical education teacher Holly Page arrived at Waco Baptist Academy the same year as Moore, in 1999. She said she was impressed by how Moore is able to administer discipline without alienating children.

โ€œSheโ€™s a good disciplinarian, but she always does it in a loving and gracious way,โ€ Page said. โ€œSheโ€™s able to do that. I donโ€™t like being the bad cop but sheโ€™s able to do it, and she never comes across as mean or unkind. Sheโ€™s always loving.โ€

Page said she was also touched by how Moore has grown to love athletics as principal, whether by attending the Waco Baptist Academy Eagles volleyball games or Baylor Lady Bears basketball.

Moore even traveled to Indianapolis in 2005 to watch the Lady Bears in the Final Four. While in the stands she held a poster board that read โ€œWBA loves the Baylor Bears,โ€ hoping TV cameras would catch the sign, giving the school a little bit of free publicity.

โ€œSheโ€™s always thinking about whatโ€™s best for the school, and sheโ€™s definitely loyal to her Baylor Bears,โ€ Gulley said.

One of Mooreโ€™s favorite parts of the job, she said, is spending time with the kids.

โ€œTheyโ€™re just funny,โ€ she said. โ€œTheyโ€™re funny and inquisitive, and theyโ€™ll just tell you what they think.โ€

She also loves the schoolโ€™s teachers, and how she enjoys when everyone comes together once a week to worship in chapel.

As much as she loves her job, Moore will step down after this school year, a decision prompted by a struggle that few have fully understood.

In 2003 Moore was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain in her neck, shoulders and back.
Those closest to Moore, including the teachers, know about the pain she deals with daily. But many donโ€™t. Sheโ€™s never tried to hide the pain, but she doesnโ€™t like to talk about it. In fact, when her retirement was announced in January, plenty of people came up to Moore and expressed their surprise that anything was wrong.

โ€œIโ€™m glad they had no idea,โ€ Moore said. โ€œIโ€™ve tried to keep this struggle to myself.โ€

Gulley, for example, who has been on the board of trustees for three years, only found out about Mooreโ€™s struggle a year and half ago when a board meeting ran late.

โ€œI think thatโ€™s a testament to her strength. She doesnโ€™t want you to know,โ€ Gulley said. โ€œI meet with her almost every Monday morning. If I ask her, sheโ€™ll tell me. Sheโ€™s not going to hide it. But sheโ€™s not going to walk in the door and be like, โ€˜Well, Iโ€™ve got a headache and I feel bad.โ€™ Usually, most people donโ€™t know that she functions every day with migraine headaches and terrible body pain. And she just smiles her way through it.โ€

Moore credits the support of her husband, Brett, and two sons, Jordan and Collin, as critical to her ability to cope with the pain. She said she kept going โ€œby the grace of God.โ€

This summer, after quietly persevering for eight years, Moore will retire.
โ€œI feel like being an administrator, you donโ€™t ever have an extended amount of downtime,โ€ Moore said. โ€œYou know, you kind of just keep going all the time. A job like this is really just all-encompassing. Iโ€™ve really just lived and breathed this job for 12 years.โ€

This year marks her 30th as an educator. Sheโ€™s spent 15 years as a teacher and 15 as a principal, making this the perfect time to retire.

โ€œIโ€™ve had nothing but peace about this decision ever since my husband and I made this decision back in October,โ€ Moore said. โ€œWhat will be hard is to walk out of here and basically say goodbye to a lot of people who have been important to me for many years.โ€

She plans to spend her time at home, but sheโ€™ll be available to the next principal of Waco Baptist Academy, whoever that may be, should he or she need to consult Moore.

โ€œThis is the way Iโ€™ve explained it to everyone Iโ€™ve talked to: I need to focus on my health, my home and my husband. So itโ€™s the three โ€˜Hโ€™s,โ€ Moore said with a laugh.

Now, Waco Baptist Academy faces the monumental task of finding someone to replace Moore.

โ€œThere are people that have a job and there are people who live their job,โ€ Serr said. โ€œSheโ€™s one of those people who live their job, so much so that itโ€™s hard to think of WBA without Cindi at the helm.โ€