Southside High School is getting the best principal in North Carolina.

The Beaufort County Board of Education selected North Carolina’s Principal of the Year Dale Cole to fill the position left vacant by Rick Anderson’s departure last month. Anderson accepted a position at Beaufort County Community College.

Cole is the principal t Chocowinity Middle School. He has been with the district since 2000, when he taught English at Southside.

He began his administrative career as an assistant principal at Washington High School in 2006 and moved to the principal position at P.S. Jones Middle School in 2009. Cole took over as principal at Chocowinity Middle School in 2011.

“The balance of a principal is being able to keep an eye on the big picture and remembering what it was like being a teacher,” Cole said last December. “I believe in teams. I believe in everybody having a voice.”

The school board also named Crystal Dixon as assistant principal of Chocowinity Middle School. Dixon, who joined Beaufort County Schools in 2000 as a teacher at Chocowinity Primary School, was a participant in the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program. She joined Northeast Elementary School as assistant principal in August 2011.

Now, the school board begins its search for a principal at Chocowinity Middle School as well as an assistant principal for Northeast Elementary School, the positions Cole and Dixon, respectively, will soon leave.

“This time of year often brings transitions involving staff,” said Don Phipps, superintendent of Beaufort County Schools. “When this does happen, we are so fortunate to have such a talented pool of prospects already on the Beaufort County Schools team.”