Kim Halliday at the Autism Awareness Festival in 2024. File photo by Brent Woronoff
Dr. Kim Halliday posing with a student at an event. Courtesy photo
Dr. Kim Halliday presents Able Trust Foundation RISE Scholarships to a Matanzas and FPC student this year. Courtesy photo
The grand opening of the TRAIL Cafe where students in the TRAIL transition program learn job skills in operating a cafe. ESE Director Kim Halliday is second from left with Superintendent LaShakia Moore. Courtesy photo
Dr. Kim Halliday, Flagler Schools’ director of Exceptional Student Education, is retiring on July 31. Halliday has worked in public school education in Florida for 32 years, the last 22 years in Flagler County.
Halliday has been the director of ESE for four years. As the district’s transition coordinator from 2013 to 2021, she helped establish a three-tiered approach for students with disabilities, who are eligible to stay in high school until their 22nd birthday, to transition into the labor market.
The district offers the TRAIL program, which assists students in finding meaningful vocational employment. STREAM courses are for students that have more need and are not ready yet to join the workforce. Project SEARCH is located at AdventHealth Palm Coast. The students there spend the whole day working with AdventHealth staff members.
“Dr. Halliday has done great work in building out transition programs for our students with disabilities,” Flagler Schools Assistant Superintendent Dr. Angela O’Brien said. “She has been instrumental in growing different opportunities for them to get connected to the workforce and do meaningful work as they transition into adulthood.”
Halliday had entered Florida’s deferred retirement option program last month and expected to remain in her position for another eight years. But then she received an offer from Able Trust, a public nonprofit that promotes employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
“This opportunity fell in my lap,” she said. “I’ll be able to help other school districts that don’t have the graduation rates like ours improve their outcomes with students with disabilities. It’s pretty exciting.”
Able Trust provided a grant to Flagler Schools in 2018 to start a fourth transition program, High School High Tech. The program is for any person with a disability in Flagler Schools and assists them in exploring postsecondary education, training and careers.
Halliday, and her husband, Dave Halliday, a Flagler Palm Coast High School teacher and head track and cross country coach, moved to Flagler County in 2004. Her first position at Flagler Schools was as a self-contained ESE teacher at FPC and then at Matanzas High School, when it opened, where she taught children with significant cognitive disabilities.
“You had to be very creative,” she said. “It was a very busy classroom. There was no sitting behind a desk, no traditional teaching. It was very individualized. And our kids grew.”
She took pride in helping a student take their first step or write their name for the first time. At Matanzas ,she started Flagler Schools’ first Disability and Awareness Week.
“Dr. Chris Pryor [Matanzas High’s first principal] welcomed us. The kids were welcomed with open arms,” she said. “My kids were part of everything they could be at both schools. It was a great way to start my career here in Flagler.”
As Halliday was finishing up her doctorate in special education, she became an ESE staffing specialist.
“It was a great experience to move form a classroom to a position where I supported the school and the students and assisted the families,” she said.
She said she knows the ESE department won’t miss a beat without her because of the leadership of Superintendent LaShakia Moore and Assistant Superintendent O’Brien.
Most ESE directors don’t have the kind of support I’ve had my whole time in the district office. With Ms. Moore and Dr. O’Brien, if it’s good for kids, we’re going to figure it out.
— Dr. KIM HALLIDAY
“When Ms. Moore says we’re going to serve all kids, my heart gets filled, beacause she means all kids,” Halliday said. “Most ESE directors don’t have the kind of support I’ve had my whole time in the district office. With Ms. Moore and Dr. O’Brien, if it’s good for kids, we’re going to figure it out. Whoever is the next ESE director is stepping into a blessing. We have a great team leading our students.”
Moore said the position has been posted on Flagler Schools’ website.
“We are looking for applicants, internal and external,” Moore said. “We're confident that we'll be able to get someone in that will attach to the vision that we've already laid out for our students with disabilities and all of our students.”
Halliday won’t be moving. She’ll continue to participate in the Autism Awareness Festival, Disability Awareness Week, the Fun Coast Down Syndrome Buddy Walk and other events that support individuals with disabilities in the county.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “This is my home. I hope to see the parents out in the community and find out how their kids are doing. I want to hear the good news.”
