- June 5, 2026
Nancy Allesee was 25 when Flagler Schools Superintendent Donn Kaupke told her to come on down from Indiana and apply for a teaching position. Thirty-nine years later, Allesee has retired from the school district.
Allesee taught for three years at Bunnell Elementary School and then, in 1990, she moved over with some of her teaching friends to a brand new school opening in Flagler Beach — Old Kings Elementary.
She has been there ever since until saying goodbye to students, faculty, staff and administrators during a surprise send-off on May 27.
“I was totally shocked,” she said. “I had no idea when I walked out in the hall.”
She was beckoned to the principal’s office for the final time after 36 years of “dedication, love and service to our school.” She passed by an-end-of-the-year celebration for two first-grade classes, turned the corner and saw the hallways lined on both sides with students, parents and staff applauding.
That was definitely a shocker, and it was a highlight of my career, just having that much love and support, and knowing that people respected me as a teacher. And it was just so heartwarming to see the children that I had taught.
— NANCY ALLESEE on her send off at Old Kings Elementary School
“The students had signs and banners and flowers, and when I got to the end, (Superintendent) LaShakia Moore was there and the administration, and I thought, ‘oh, this is great, this is such a nice sendoff,’” Allesee said. “And then I turned and looked outside and saw the rest of the school in the courtyard. That was definitely a shocker, and it was a highlight of my career, just having that much love and support, and knowing that people respected me as a teacher. And it was just so heartwarming to see the children that I had taught.”
Kaupke had been Allesee’s superintendent in Merrillville, Indiana, when she was growing up. When she arrived in Flagler County for her interview, it was a culture shock. She grew up outside of Chicago, and Palm Coast in 1987 had one traffic light.
“My parents were like, ‘hey, go try it out. If you want to stay a year, you can stay a year, and then see if you like it.’ Well, here I am still, 39 years later,” Allesee said. “So it's certainly been a big change from when I first moved here.”
Allesee taught first grade during her first 20 years with the district, and then second grade for the past 19 years. With her family in Indiana, OKES became her family, she said.
“I had wonderful friends at Old Kings, and it just felt like home,” she said. “It felt like family. Everybody was welcoming. Everybody treated each other with a lot of respect.”
The family atmosphere trickled down to the students who stayed together in the same group from kindergarten through fifth grade.
“They were actually called, ‘the family,’ Allesee said. “They were very close-knit, and so were the teachers. And we had school-staff child care. So, both of my children, who are now 27 and 24, they came to school with me as infants and went to Old Kings all the way up through fifth grade. We were the only district in the state that provided that for our teachers, which was phenomenal.”
It’s been very rewarding, she said, to see so many of her former students go on to become teachers themselves.
“I always have thought Flagler has been a very progressive and top of the line school district,” she said. “I've been through nine superintendents and nine principals, and each one brought something a little unique and different to the table. We always are striving to be a premier learning organization, so we always have new ideas.”
The addition of the flagship programs introducing a career program to each school made all of the schools special and unique, she said. Over the past 39 years, she’s also seen the elementary school curriculum become more rigorous.
“When I first start teaching first grade, you would get them learning the alphabet to start teaching them to read and sound out words, and now they're expected to be reading in first grade,” she said. “In second, it's more focusing on comprehension, and a lot of the students are aren't quite ready for that, especially if they come from other places where they don't start school until September and they're already almost five, six weeks behind where we are.”
Allesee said now that she is retired, she and her husband are planning to go on a cruise. She is also planning trips to visit family. She wants to read more, and she said she has a lot of crafting to do that she’s had to put aside.
“I just want to really enjoy life and be able to go to the beach whenever I want to see sunrises,” she said. “And I still want to go to the school and volunteer for a couple of friends in their classrooms, just so I don't totally miss working with the children.”
