A celebration of a life in education: Teresa Belote announces retirement

During last week’s Board of Education meeting, St. Joseph County Intermediate School District Superintendent Dr. Teresa Belote announced she plans to retire. Belote, who will have spent more than 32 years in education, will step down on June 30, 2026, to support the transition to the ISD’s next leader.

Belote spoke with Watershed Voice to reflect on her path through education, the community that shaped her, and the work she hopes will continue long after she leaves her role.

Roots in St. Joseph County

Belote grew up in St. Joseph County, graduating from Colon. “My husband was a Sturgis graduate. Our kids graduated from Sturgis. So I’ve always been pretty tightly entwined with our community here,” she said.

She didn’t begin college planning to teach. “It started in pre-med, many, many years ago,” she said. But during an activity at Western Michigan University, “I fell in love with working with students, that’s when I realized that’s what I wanted to do.” She shifted into education, beginning as a teacher of students with IEPs.

Belote spent a decade teaching in White Pigeon and Mendon before moving into roles in Sturgis as a special education supervisor and teacher consultant. She later served as principal at Congress and Wenzel elementary schools for nearly 10 years. “What a wonderful opportunity to work with students,” she said. “I got to work with amazing educators and support them as they supported students.”

Belote said her decision to pursue the superintendency grew out of watching how policy decisions affected schools. 

“People with good intentions were making legislative decisions about kids, and sometimes the unintended consequences had negative impacts,” she said. “I thought superintendents get invited to that seat.”

She served three years as superintendent in Bronson before colleagues encouraged her to apply for the SJCISD job. She was selected in 2017.

“I’ve always believed if you apply, it’s a win-win,” she said. “I was in a job I loved, and applying for a job I thought I would love.” Nearly nine years later, she still describes the role as a calling. “This is not a job for me. This is about making our community better and making sure we have positive outcomes for kids.”

Expanding CTE opportunities

One of her earliest focuses at the ISD was understanding the community’s expectations for Career and Technical Education. “We put everything on hold for a year and went around and talked to groups, ‘What do you see as the needs? How do you think that can be accomplished?’”

That listening tour helped shape a major expansion following the 2019 countywide CTE millage. “There’s now 18 programs, where we had 10 when I started,” she said, naming culinary, aviation, HVAC, welding, mechanical programs, and public safety among them.

An emotional memory came during a Habitat for Humanity open house. Students in the CTE building trades program gave her a tour of the home they helped build, sharing new skills and career goals. Afterward, she met the future homeowner, who talked excitedly “about where she wanted to plant flowers in the spring, and that her two boys were going to have a bedroom of their own.”

“I went to my car and cried,” Belote said. “That is the magic, to see how we can be a positive impact across two sides of the same coin.”

Supporting the whole student

Beyond CTE, Belote pointed to work-based learning opportunities for young adults in special education, including partnerships with the Commission on Aging. “It’s a beautiful opportunity when you can meet a need in the community and also grow yourself personally,” she said.

She also emphasized the ISD’s rapid development of mental health services, built through early partnerships with Community Mental Health (now Pivotal). “Now we have an entire department of mental health clinicians to go into the local school districts and support kids’ needs,” she said.

Technology and cybersecurity supports have also grown. “We try to be intentional, to find solutions for our community without breaking the bank,” she said, noting the importance of fiscal responsibility as both superintendent and taxpayer.

A county that shows up for kids

Belote described St. Joseph County as unusually collaborative. Monthly meetings with local superintendents, she said, routinely move past rivalry. “There’s certainly a level of competition…Friday Night Lights,” she said. “But on Monday morning it’s, ‘How can we collectively leverage our districts to go for that grant?’”

She added that one of the blessings of working in this region is seeing good work that educators themselves rarely pause to acknowledge. “What I don’t think educators are very good at is celebrating their wins,” she said. “We’re often just doing the work, and we forget to tell the world of the amazing things that are happening.”

Belote credited chambers of commerce, business partners, and service organizations for investing in young people and helping make that work visible. “It’s so easy to point out the negative things that happen,” she said. “If you take a minute, our county is amazing. It’s awe-inspiring to see the difference-makers across this county.”

Why now — and what’s next

Belote said the ISD is in “really good shape” after a strong year, making this the right moment to begin a transition. “If I waited until I was ready to leave, I wouldn’t be leaving this year,” she said, emphasizing that year may never come given how much she loves her work. Announcing early, she added, gives strong candidates time to apply and to leave their own districts well.

She’s clear about what she’ll miss most. “Kids, families, the day-to-day operations of helping solve problems,” she said. “I love to partner with people who want to make the world a better place.”

One thing she won’t miss is the experience of leading during the height of COVID. “Being an administrator during COVID was absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “We’d hear, ‘Tomorrow we’re going to close the doors,’ and then the next week, ‘You’re going to write a 120-page response plan.’ It was a lot of pivoting.” She added that what began as a rallying cry quickly soured under the strain of constant change: “We actually started out using the word ‘pivot’ as a morale booster, and it quickly became a dirty word here.”

As for retirement, Belote is cautiously excited. 

“I’ve always worked, since I was 15. I look forward to having maybe a little more flexibility to smell the roses.” She hopes to travel with her husband and “continue to be a bad golfer into the future.”

“I’ve never felt like it was work because I’ve always liked what I’ve done,” she said. “I’ve been very lucky.”

Maxwell Knauer is a staff writer for Watershed Voice.