New assistant superintendent feels at home at local schools

October 8, 2025

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

“It’s the Holy Spirit for sure. It’s nothing I decided on my own. The Holy Spirit definitely had a hand in this – my whole career and my whole life for that matter,” said Kristin Healt, new assistant superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Ogdensburg.

From her office at St. Peter’s Church in Lowville, where she works when she’s not visiting schools or at the diocesan offices in Ogdensburg, Healt said she finds working in her current position to be “so moving.”

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “But I was Protestant growing up. This is so different. Being Catholic is so consuming, so deep in my soul. I didn’t feel that as a Protestant. Something was missing.”

Healt said she found that missing piece when, after graduating college in the 1990s, the Boonville native struggled to find a job.

“I ended up for a while at a head start in Boonville,” she said. “I liked it, but I wasn’t allowed to teach there. I wanted to have my own classroom to teach. St. Peter’s School in Lowville was hiring a first-grade teacher. That was the grade I always wanted to teach.”

Healt said she applied for the job, and she was scheduled for an interview.

“I missed the interview,” Healt said. “Sister Judy Adams was the principal, and she called me to ask if I was coming. I told her I’d be there in 15 minutes. The drive there is normally longer than that, and I still had to get ready.”

When she walked into that interview and saw a familiar face in the school’s staff, Healt said she knew she wanted that job.

“I felt like I was home,” she said. “I did get the job, and I loved working at St. Peter’s. Sister Judy taught me so much! I was there seven years. The last year, I looped into second grade. It was wonderful! The students all knew what to expect and what the routine was.”

While teaching at the school, Healt received her sacraments of initiation and became Catholic.

“My husband and I got married here,” she said. “Of course, I had to promise we’d raise our kids Catholic. When our son, Jacob, was born, I wanted us all to be the same religion. My husband said, ‘you’re more Catholic than I am.’ I really loved everything about it – the formality, the routine, the sacraments. It all means a lot to me.”

It was at the end of that year that the announcement was made that would shutter St. Peter’s School.

“That was the saddest decision in my life,” Healt said. “I don’t want anyone else to feel that. As terrible as that experience was, and I still get choked up when I think about it or talk about it, I know what I’m fighting for when it comes to our Catholic schools.”

When the decision was made to close the school, Healt had already begun coursework to become a school administrator.

“I thought I would be principal at St. Peter’s, and my kids would go to school there,” she said. “But then I ended up needing a job. A reading teacher position was available at Adirondack Middle School in Boonville. I knew the principal, Pat Thomas – she had been my health teacher. I went into the interview knowing I never wanted to teach middle school. I wanted first grade. I felt forced into it. I took the job as a middle school reading teacher, and I ended up loving it. The school was a great place, and I loved it there. They had a great staff, and I made a lot of great friends. Pat Thomas was a great role model.”

As she completed her coursework in administration, Healt completed her internship with administration in Adirondack School District.

“They were looking for a principal for West Leyden Elementary,” she said. “The old principal had left, and the new principal had to work out her notice, so they let me do the interim position. It was right down the hill from my house. I honestly thought that was where I was meant to be – a public school administrator. Mom had been a school nurse at that school, dad had been a custodian. My husband was on the school board.”

When circumstances around the position changed, the district’s Board of Education considered Healt for the principal positions, but her candidacy for the job didn’t secure enough support from the board to pass, partly because her husband had to abstain from the vote.

“It was devastating,” she said. “I thought it was the end of everything I wanted to do. I went back to teaching. After a while, our principal came to me and said, ‘St. Patrick’s School in Oneida is looking for a principal, and I think you should apply.’ I said, ‘no, Pat. I’m good. I’ll be a teacher the rest of my life.’ I had lost confidence. I thought, ‘no one wants me to be a leader.’ Pat said, ‘no. I want you to apply for this.’ Then my mom’s friend saw it in a newspaper, and she thought I should apply. I hemmed and hawed about it. I was praying about it, really just trying to discern. It was like God said, ‘just apply.’ It was the day the applications were due. I quickly got my cover letter together and sent them my resume.”

It didn’t take long for an interview to be scheduled.

“I was such a wreck over that interview,” Healt said. “As I sat in the faculty room, there was a picture of Mary holding Jesus in her arms when he was a baby. In the middle of the interview, I started crying. I apologized. I just felt like I was home again. I had been missing that Catholic part of teaching. When holidays came around, we couldn’t celebrate them. We couldn’t talk about Jesus. I couldn’t pray with the students. I remember how fun it was taking kids to Mass and preparing them with reading. I had this overwhelming sense that this was where I was supposed to be.”

Healt, a mom of three, said she was at the school in Oneida for 10 years, and her daughters attended the school. When she no longer had a child attending there, she said she started to “get the itch” to move onto the next step in her career.

“The superintendent in Syracuse, Amy Sansone, emailed me about this assistant superintendent position open in Diocese of Ogdensburg. I kept thinking, ‘Ogdensburg is two hours away.’ I live in my grandmother’s old house next door to my parents’ house. The more I talked about it with my husband, John, the more we agreed I needed to take the leap and see what happened. I applied not thinking it would ever work out. When I got called for the interview, I took my whole family up to Ogdensburg. They all loved the river and the beauty of it. (Superintendent) Sister Ellen Rose (Coughlin) recognized me from my time at St. Peter’s School. I wasn’t nervous at all. I felt like I was back home in a place that respected my experience.”

When she was offered the job, it was determined that Healt could split her time between Ogdensburg and an office closer to home in Lowville.

New to the role, Healt said she’s still “collecting data.”

“The population up north is much less than I ever knew,” she said. “I heard people were moving out of New York, but I wasn’t seeing it. I’m seeing it now.”

She also noted that she looks forward to getting to know the schools here.

“Syracuse Diocese is big, but most of the schools are relatively close together,” she said. “Here, we’re much more spread out. A lot of things happen virtually, which is great!”

While she’s still figuring out the challenges and needs of the schools and her role, Healt said she feels call to one primary goal.

“I don’t ever want to close a school,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to ever have to go through that again. I love Catholic education, and I know it’s worth fighting for.”