Joe Colistro is entering retirement after five years as the superintendent of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
With the 2018-19 school year coming to a close, Joe Colistro is wrapping up his tenure as superintendent of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education.
Colistro announced his impending retirement at the MHCBE’s Nov. 13 meeting.
He spoke to the News this week about the highlights of his five years with the MHCBE.
“It’s been a privilege to have been the superintendent here,” Colistro said. “I was lucky to come to a division where I was supported by everyone when I arrived. The staff were amazing. The people in my office were quite simply amazing. The people I work with on the board have been quite supportive. And I’ve always felt that our students and staff have provided me with the opportunity to do the things I needed to do.”
He’s especially proud of the “culture of continuous improvement” that’s been cultivated under his watch.
“Everybody works hard and they understand it’s for the common good of Catholic education,” Colistro said.
The modernization of Monsignor McCoy and opening of the brand new Ecole St. John Paul II School are accomplishments he says he’ll always remember fondly, but it’s the relationships he’s forged with his colleagues that stand out the most.
He borrowed a quote from A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh to summarize his sentiments upon retirement – “How lucky am I to have something to make saying goodbye so hard.”
“At the end of the day, saying goodbye here has been so hard because of the relationships we’ve developed,” Colistro explained. “We work well together, we care for each other and we look out for each other. That’s been a very positive experience.”
It’s natural that Colistro – a Catholic educator – would also have a biblical passage that further reflected his gratitude.
“‘For those who have been given much, much is expected,'” he quoted from the Book of Luke. “A lot of people in our positions have been given much and much should be expected of us. We’re never going to be judged on our professional accomplishments, but how well we treat people … and that’s how I believe we got things done.”
