After 54 years in education, Sister Celeste Botello will be stepping down.
Botello will be finishing up her 21 years as principal for Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy by the end of June, her longest time in one position in her career.
“I am amazed that 21 years has passed by,” said Botello, “… but I can truly, honestly say it has really energized me and I just love it.”
Botello first caught the passion for teaching in 1969 when she started out at about 22 years old, instructing junior high schoolers in math. During this time, she moved from school-to-school, teaching while also obtaining her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies at San Jose State University.
“I taught junior high math and science, a wonderful experience. I love school, I truly love education,” said Botello.
After teaching math at three different schools, the General Council of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose asked her to take a stab at being an elementary school principal at St. James Elementary in San Francisco. She was there for about seven years until she was transferred to St. Frances X. Cabrini Elementary School as the principal, where she stayed 13 years, her longest standing position at the time.
After transitioning from school to school, Botello didn’t expect to lead at a high school despite her love of the job.
“I was told that they wanted me to go to high school. And I said, ‘I don’t want to go to high school, they’re taller than I am,’ and they said, ‘Sister, everybody’s taller than you,’” laughed Botello.
She made a deal to try it out for two years and if she didn’t like it, she could go back to elementary school.
Botello was sent to her first all-girls school at San Gabriel Mission High School to be the dean of students, “and it was wonderful.”
After confirming she could, indeed, handle high school, the General Council sent her to FSHA and “for the 21 years I’ve been here as principal, I’ve loved every minute of it.”
There have been some hard times, Botello admitted, like the tragic death of two students and the pandemic, but “there are good times and not so good times, that’s life. But the good times outweigh the bad times.”
The passage of time has clipped by over the years, she added, except for the pandemic-induced online teaching, which slowed life down to a grinding halt. She missed the connection with her students then.
FSHA President Sister Carolyn McCormack, who started just a year after Botello, noted how close the two have become working side by side for 20 years.
“She came ahead of me by one year, and I will leave a year after her, so we both will have 21 years at Flintridge Sacred Heart, 20 of them together. I think it’s been a
collaborative, collegial, wonderful leadership experience. And I think the two of us have been able to work together as sisters, to really support and enhance the nation
at Flintridge Sacred Heart,” McCormack said.
She talked about Botello’s influence on the hundreds of girls over the past 21 years.
“She is a very people centered, friendly, open Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose. She has a wonderful sense of humor. She has an ability to engage with students and parents and colleagues in a positive way,” said McCormack.
Now, both Botello and McCormack hold on to this moment of loss, happiness and new beginnings.
“The news for us is a blessing and a loss,” said McCormack. “It’s just bittersweet. The fact that we’re sisters, and we’re so close together, it isn’t like we’re leaving each other. But the leaving of Flintridge Sacred Heart is a significant step for each of us. But we’ve been very much a team in our 20 years of leadership.”
Now at 76 years old, Botello will be moving on to work in the Mission San Jose as the congregational prioress, to help older women and, “attend the soul of the congregation.”
She hopes that any new student joining FSHA will “have an experience where they feel that they’re welcomed, that they’re cared for, that they’re safe and hopefully, that they’re loved.”
Current Assistant Principal of Student Affairs at FSHA, Rebecca Bostic, has been slated to replace Botello as principal, and she is making history while doing so.
“What’s significant about this change in leadership is that it is the first time that there will not be sisters in leadership at the school. We’ll have a new lay principle, and we will have a new lay president,” said McCormack.
The change will not stop here: in just a year’s time, McCormack will be leaving her position and completing 21 years at FSHA just like Botello.
“So, things have changed dramatically over 20 years. Change is a healthy thing, and I think the school will thrive under the leadership of a new president and a new principle that will take the school forward into the next millennium,” said McCormack.
Bostic is excited and honored to be following in Botello’s footsteps as principal.
“I feel really honored to get to follow in the footsteps of the work of the sisters. I think that the Catholic Sisters have shaped the United States of America in their collective commitment to Catholic education,” said Bostic.
Bostic also sees herself staying at
FSHA as long as Botello, and maybe, even longer.
“I think I could be here forever,” said Bostic. “…it’s just deeply rewarding work, especially somewhere like at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, where we have truly the most impressive faculty, who are so dedicated. So many of them have been here for decades.”
There’s nothing better. I mean, this place is really a jewel on a hill. It really is a special place.”
Going into her fifth year at FSHA, Bostic already has some goals in mind when she takes over the principal title.
“In the long term, it’s really looking at what it means to be pushing critical thinking and community engagement in 2023,” said Bostic. “Especially with things like AI and chat GPT really coming up into the forefront, just making sure that we’re equipping our students to go out into the world and be ready to engage with the challenges that we don’t know exist yet, but we know will exist.”
She is also committed to getting students back into the community to engage in service after the pandemic put that on hold.
Bostic has worked in the office directly across from Botello and has cherished the time that they have shared together. She hopes that she has learned all she needs to keep FSHA a great place for students.
“[Botello] is someone who works tirelessly,” said Bostic. “She’s always moving. She’s always thinking. She’s always pulling somebody into her office to talk about this or that and she always has an idea on how to advance the school. But really, she is a leader. She just loved everybody here so well, and that’s what made this place thrive. It is just that investment of time and love that she put into every faculty, staff member and then, most importantly, student. I just hope I learned from her enough to inspire my work and the rest of my career as I go forward.
“So, to get to sit across the hall, from a legend in the field and just get to learn from her every single day has been really the gift of a lifetime for me.”
First published in the June 1 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
