BRUNSWICK — St. John’s Catholic School principal Andree “Muffy” Tostevin will spend her first week of retirement near the beach.

The Falmouth native harbors a deep connection to the water and to the sea.

But to strengthen that connection — after a 47-year career in education — she’ll have to lose others, and that’s the hard part.

“What am I going to do this summer?” the principal known to all in the school as “Mrs. T” asked a class of kindergartners Tuesday morning.

“Retire!” a group of students proclaimed.

“And then?”

“Go fishing!”

After her first fishing trip three years ago, “I was hooked,” Tostevin said. Since that excursion, the Bath resident said that putting a hook in the water along the Kennebec has been a rare treat.

“I go out there and say, ‘This is God’s country,’” Tostevin said Tuesday in her office at the parochial school on Pleasant Street. “You can’t go anywhere else or do anything but put a line in the water and focus on getting a fish.”

That focus in an environment where “you can’t help but be at peace,” renews her spirits.

But so does school.

Looking back on a career filled with challenges, changes and periods of uncertainty, the 65-year-old Tostevin still gets joy out of visiting with the “little ones,” she said, talking about life with the “big ones” and sharing a close-knit school community.

“It’s precious that they know I’m going to be fishing,” Tostevin said as she exited teacher Kathleen Curry’s kindergarten classroom.

It’s one of the things that, since deciding to retire, she’s begun to notice.

“Every day I see something that I say, ‘Boy, I’m going to miss that.’”

From public to private

Tostevin began her education career teaching public school in the mid-1960s in Colorado. That first job was far from where she would end up, geographically and professionally.

Even then, the Mainer felt a draw of the coast.

“I missed the ocean,” Tostevin said. “The water just gets in your soul.”

So, she plotted a return to the East, landing a job at a school in Augusta, eventually moving on to graduate school around 1970 at the University of New Hampshire, where she met her husband.

Years teaching in New Hampshire eventually led to the start of Tostevin’s career as a school administrator and landed her back in Maine before her only daughter was set to start school.

Tostevin would take the top spot at Fisher-Mitchell School in Bath, where she served as principal for 14 years. Her last year there she spent in the Maine Department of Education’s Special Services Division as a distinguished educator.

After that year and more than a decade in that post, she knew that she and the school were ready for a change. And to make changes at a school with the same leadership, she said, can be difficult.

“You form relationships as an administrator and change after a long time is tough,” Tostevin said.

With that realization sinking in, she resigned.

Without knowing what was next, her sister insisted she apply for a job at St. Joseph’s School in Lewiston.

When Tostevin entered the church — then the city’s oldest, which closed in 2009 — she knew it was the right fit. She discovered the church’s cornerstone had been laid by her great-grandfather — a Benoit (Tostevin and Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson are cousins) — and her-great grandmother had attended the parish’s school.

“You know how you feel you’re meant to be in a place?” Tostevin said.

After seven years, that feeling began to fade and Tostevin first decided to retire, with one exception.

“I said I would only take the position at St. John’s if that opened up,” Tostevin said.

Within a month, it did.

The toughest decision

Seven years later, deciding to leave the top spot at St. John’s school was not easy, Tostevin said.

“When you love a job, when is the right time to leave?”

In part, her husband’s retirement this year helped her make the decision.

“Quality time together is invaluable,” Tostevin said, especially as both have careers in education, often requiring long hours.

Through stints in both public and private education, Tostevin said the job at St. John’s was the best she’s ever had.

Just last year, she received the 2011 Distinguished Principal Award for New England, out of 300 principals, by the National Catholic Education Association.

But much of what makes this job her favorite, she said, derives from the community of parents, teachers, students and parish members contributing to the 165-student school.

It’s also because of changes she was able to make at the school, like leveling tuition fees between Catholic and non-Catholic students, and similarly opening access to financial aid.

“We give away around $100,000 in financial assistance every year,” Tostevin said. “I’m proud of that.”

Tostevin said she also managed to make changes to the math curriculum, expand the school’s foreign language offerings to include French, Spanish and after-school Chinese, and participate in longrange facilities projects she said are very important for the parish.

Outside of the public school system, Tostevin said, those changes were easier to put into effect.

“If test scores show X, then it doesn’t take an act of Congress to change and find what fits us,” Tostevin said.

But the difficulty in leaving, she said, comes from a personal sense of satisfaction and comfort as well.

“That’s the rewarding thing, to watch kids grow up into adults,” Tostevin said. “With grades K through 8, you can watch that growth.”

That includes being able to share a religious and spiritual side, Tostevin said, a difference from public education that she found years ago to be a better fit for her personal values.

During her tenure, the school met with challenges through economic downturn and an estimated loss of 50 to 60 students following the closure of Brunswick Naval Air Station. Following that time, Tostevin said the school has a solid financial footing.

Tostevin said she is confident that the school will continue to thrive in her absence.

“The staff is very capable and that’s what makes things work,” Tostevin said. “It’s the teachers in the classroom who affect the (school) day in and day out and when that’s working, that’s a wonderful thing.”

Tostevin will finish her last day at the school on June 28, after seven years as principal.

“It’s someone else’s turn to experience this wonderful place,” Tostevin said.

dfishell@timesrecord.com