Carmen Ostafichuk, known as Mrs. O by many of her students, is moving on from Holy Trinity Academy after a quarter-century.
She began as a math teacher in 1996, before moving up to vice-principal and then principal; a position she held for the last 11 years.
"I've been at Holy Trinity my entire career," she said.
Ostafichuk is not leaving education, but shifting to a different realm. She is now the new director of human resources for Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools.
"I did not want to leave, but it felt right because I think I can do good things in this role," she said.
Taking Ostafichuk's place is Diana Atkinson, the former principal at St. Francis of Assisi Academy.
Ostafichuk said she has enjoyed working with Atkinson on the transition.
"She is just a high calibre person," she said.
Atkinson joined Christ the Redeemer in 2003 as a math teacher at HTA, where she remained until 2011, before becoming principal of St. Francis. She held that position until she had the chance to return to HTA – this time, as principal.
"My heart's always kind of been with Holy Trinity," she said. "I love teaching the older kids, I love the staff, the students, the traditions and all that so it was a nice opportunity.
"I felt good about St. Francis being a strong community that's now established and I felt like I could kind of come back home."
Atkinson said she is looking forward to continuing to build on the strong culture at HTA, especially following the disruption and isolation of the pandemic.
Having been in her new position for about three weeks, she said it's been fantastic coming back to the high school.
"I've had the opportunity to reconnect with the older staff that have been here before when I was here, as well as everybody who came in new in the last six years," said Atkinson.
She's even had the chance to connect with some of her old students.
"There's familiar faces amongst the student population because I have students that came from St. Francis that are now here. It's actually quite special," she said, adding the first group of students to leave St. Francis is now graduating from HTA.
"I think that's going to be a really special moment," she said of watching those students cross the stage at graduation.
Ostafichuk will also be participating in the upcoming graduation, much to her delight.
She said she'll miss seeing the students in the hallways the most, as well as her long-time co-workers.
"I'll miss the kids and the energy and enthusiasm you get from kids all the time," she said.
"And, there's people there I've worked with for 25 years, there's humans there that I've never had days of work without, so that's special."
Ostafichuk said she hopes to continue to honour the gift of Catholic education as she moves forward in her new role.
