By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — The school district will see a new middle school principal  and deputy director of special education this fall.

Richard Drolet was promoted to the post of principal at North Cumberland Middle School during Thursday’s School Committee meeting. Drolet had been the school’s assistant principal.
He replaces Thomas Kenworthy, who has been selected for a three-year fellowship with the state Department of Education. Kenworthy has been a school district employee for six years, the last three as principal.
“I would like to thank everyone for this opportunity,” Drolet said Thursday. “He (Kenworthy) will be sorely missed. I will work toward a smooth transition for parents, students and staff.”
Frederik Schockaert, a native of Belgium, was unanimously approved as the district’s deputy director of special education Thursday night.
Schockaert, who lives in Providence, holds state certification as a special education administrator, as a middle and high school principal and as a teacher for students with severe and profound disabilities.
He has served as a team leader for the Carter School in Providence; as a special education teacher at the Carter School; as a teacher, guidance counselor and school librarian at the Sint Lodewijk School in Wetteren, Belgium; and as a teacher at the Royal Technical Athenaeum in Kortrijk, Belgium.
Schockaert is fluent in English, Dutch, French and German, and has a basic command of Russian and Spanish.
He is a graduate of Providence College, where he earned a master’s degree in education, secondary school administration; of Boston University, with a master’s degree in special education, intensive special needs; and a of the University of Ghent in Belgium, where he received several diplomas and qualified for teacher certification.
“Excellent choice,” School Committee member Robert C. Thibodeau said of Schockaert’s appointment.