Final Days At St. Anthony's For Principal Ackerboom - DrumhellerOnline.com

Announced earlier this year, a transition is on the way for St. Anthony's School as JoAnne Ackerboom has announced her retirement.

With the final day for students as of Wednesday, June 29th, it will be the unofficial last day as Principal for St. Anthony's School for Ackerboom, who has been at St. Anthony's for the past nine years.  She shares that she is looking forward to retirement but not exactly counting down to the end. "It's funny because a lot of people have been asking me if I'm counting down the days and it's like I'm not counting down the days. I'm enjoying every day here. I love the school, I love the kids, I love the staff, I love the parents, so I will miss them dearly."

Most hope for more time with family when they retire and Ackerboom is planning on the same. "We do have some grandchildren on the way, back east, and so I'm looking forward to spending more time with family and some of our kids. With COVID, we haven't seen them for three years, so with two babies on the way it's a pretty exciting thing to look forward to."

There is so much that Ackerboom will miss but the environment of the school will be one she will really miss. "I think it's the whole environment. For me, it was my first opportunity to work in a Catholic community, and I have to say that my faith has grown exponentially being part of this community. I will be forever grateful for that. I'm going to have to develop a whole new faith community because we live and breathe our love for each other. I see that in the students, I see that in the staff and how much they care for the kids, how much the kids care for each other, and how involved our parents are. It's been an incredible experience to be here, and I think I'll miss that the most."

Another favourite moment happened just this year. "I guess one of the other things that I love about our school is the involvement from our community," shares Ackerboom. "This year we have two RCMP liaison officers. This one day, one of them came into the school and he wanted to talk to me." She was just headed out to supervise the kids on the playground. "He went out on the playground and he was just inundated with kids and they were going 'can I have your autograph, can I have your autograph'. He had just had an incredible moment and it was such pure joy in his face and for me to watch this with the kids, it was just so much fun."

Ackerboom is confident that the transition will be seamless to new Principal Celeste Schrock and her team moving forward. She will have her last day June 30th. 

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Final Days At St. Anthony's For Principal Ackerboom - DrumhellerOnline.com
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