Sarah Maddox
News Editor
After over 38 years of being an educator, superintendent Dr. Mary Kolek is retiring, effective June 30. She will be moving to South Carolina with her husband to live closer to her family. Over the course of her educational career, Dr. Kolek has been a special education teacher, a counselor, a teacher, a deputy superintendent, a principal, and a superintendent. The educator has been instrumental in making changes and improvements to the New Canaan Public Schools system as superintendent, including adding a world language program in the elementary and middle schools, expanding the Chinese program, and emphasizing the arts.
Dr. Kolek has had a lasting impact on many faculty members in the school district. NCHS principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi feels that he owes a lot to Dr. Kolek. “[She] was instrumental in my decision to come to New Canaan,” he said. “She was forward-thinking and inspiring, and she was an outstanding educational leader.” He hopes that her values and focus on excellence will continue after her departure from NCPS.
Although now Dr. Kolek is a highly respected superintendent, she began her educational career by helping students as a tutor for special needs children at the early age of nine. This inspired her to begin her real career as a special needs teacher and then later become a counselor, where she worked with families who were at risk or had intensive needs. As a counselor, Dr. Kolek was allowed to develop a new program from scratch, which is what she found to be one of the peaks of her career. As a result, she hopes to do the same kind of counseling work as a volunteer in a Ronald McDonald house or a hospital setting during her retirement.
During her time in the New Canaan Public Schools district, Dr. Kolek expanded many areas of learning; one of the most prominent being the language program. Students can now begin learning two different languages at an elementary school level, something that was implemented by Dr. Kolek and her team on the Board of Education. Somebody from outside the school district was involved in the planning of this program, which helped Dr. Kolek and the Board of Education realize that learning languages develops brain power. In particular, the Chinese language program has been expanded because parents and students showed an interest in the language, and the Board of Education sees Chinese as very relevant and important for youths to learn. Dr. Kolek’s main goal for the K-12 World Language Program is to eventually have students learning content courses in their target language.
In addition to advancing the language program, Dr. Kolek placed a large importance on the arts. She sees it as yet another way for students to find their passions and interests, and find their way to success. “Art is such an important vehicle for students to connect to themselves, and then connect to the world through the arts,” Dr. Kolek said.
The superintendent expressed how much she will miss the supportive New Canaan learning community. “I came looking for a community of people who not only care about the outcome of learning, but also learning itself, and I found that in New Canaan,” she said.
After reflecting on her long, impactful career, Dr. Kolek emphasized that what really matters is that students continue to value learning. She loves her career because she is a part of this acquiring of knowledge. “There are people in this world that risk their lives to be educated,” she said, getting emotional. “We do this because learning is important, and it saves peoples’ lives.”
