Source: Hometown Life

Author: Brad Kadrich

For more than four decades, Carolyn Witte has held every role that can be held at Farmington's Mercy High School.

She graduated from there (1967), so she's been a student. Her daughter went there, so she's been a mom. She taught English there and, for the last 16 years, has served as the school's principal.

With the close of the 2016/17 school year Witte is trying a new role on for size.

Retiree.

Witte, a Livonia resident who has spent 42 years (and that doesn't count her time as a student) roaming the halls and ensuring the needs of the Mercy student body are met, closed the door on her education career when the school year ended.

"I'm going to miss the people and not just the students," said Witte, who began teaching at Mercy in 1975. "I'm going to miss my colleagues and I'm going to miss the parents."

Witte got her bachelor's degree from Eastern Michigan in 1971 and, with a dearth of teaching jobs available in southeast Michigan at the time, followed her parents and siblings to Holland, where her father had been transferred for work.

She remembers the siblings went "kicking and screaming," since Holland was a very small town at the time. Witte landed a job and taught in Holland for three years, before returning to this area to a) get a job and b) marry Robert Witte.

There were three openings for English teachers at Mercy at the time, so Witte snagged one of them. Another teaching job was grabbed by a young teacher named Laurence Baker.

Witte taught for 24 years until the former principal left and then joined the search committee to find a replacement. While doing that work, someone asked Witte if she were interested.

Witte hadn't given it much thought, because all previous principals had been Sisters of Mercy. But the school was moving to a president/principal model, in which the president would concentrate on areas such as donor and alumni relations, among others, and the principal would focus on running the school.

Witte talked it over with her husband and ...

"The rest is, as they say, is someone else's mistake," she said, laughing. "My husband and I feel a great gratitude for the kind of place this school has been  to work."

Baker, who hired in at Mercy the same day as Witte, taught English across the hall from her for years. He said Witte's strength as an educator "begins with the fact she loves kids."

"She revels in their accomplishments and appreciates that each one brings a unique combination of abilities, interests and challenges to school each day," Baker said. "She has always been particularly concerned for students who do not thrive in a conventional (and, at our school, rigorous) academic setting."

As an administrator, Baker said, Witte has been "particularly successful" overseeing the implementation of programs that support students academically and emotionally.

"She also recognizes that adolescents (and adults) make wrong choices and do 'crazy' things," he said. "She has patience and empathy. My daughter tremendously respected her when she was a student in her class. She said Mrs. Witte's room was a place where students were safe to make a mistake and always welcome to form their own opinions."

That's particularly important to Witte, who believes the four years kids spend in high school are some of the most critical developmentally in their lives.

"High school is such an important age," Witte said. "Teenagers have to start considering, 'What do I think, and why do I think it?' I tell parents, 'This is the age when your daughter is going to find her voice.' That's the kind of development we want to have in kids. I hope there's never a time when we don't want to hear that."

Baker, who now serves as Witte's associate principal, thinks she made her biggest impact on the school's culture. He said most visitors talk about the "caring and friendly" atmosphere the school possesses.

"This starts at the top," Baker said. "Carolyn's door is always open to students and staff. She often stops whatever she is doing to give us her full attention. Those who go to her know they will get a fair hearing from a very compassionate person. She certainly models the values of the Sisters of Mercy for all."

Administrative assistant Pat Scheid said Witte has been "fabulous for the school" with her all-about-the-students focus.

"She's a great communicator and she really supports the school and the students," Scheid said. "She's a Mercy girl, through and through."

The next phase of life begins now, but Witte has no idea what it will bring. Her husband has been retired "for a couple of years" and she's glad to be joining him.

But there's no blueprint for what comes next.

"After driving here for 42 years, the plan is there's no plan," Witte said with a smile. "I don't have a frame of reference (for retirement), but it's exciting. This is Act 3 of my time line. I'm going to enjoy it."