Each year, as a service to our readers, the Cranston Herald provides a listing of the administrators running each of the Cranston Public Schools as well as a quick introduction to any new building administrators.

This year, there are several new administrators at the building level, along with a new face at the central administration level.

Janet Antonelli, Gina Armstrong, Patricia Caporelli, Marisa Jackson and Charlotte Josephs are the new principals at Peters, Rhodes, Arlington, Woodridge and Dutemple elementary schools, respectively.

Keith Croft has taken the reins at Hugh Bain Middle School, and Michael Crudale has taken on the role of executive director of human resources in the central administration offices.

The following was compiled based on conversations with the new administrators:

Arlington Elementary School: Patricia Caporelli

, principal

Patricia Caporelli comes to Arlington Elementary School from Peters Elementary School, where she was the principal for 14 years.

“I’m excited to be an Arlington All Star and I’m looking forward to building an All-Star team here, including our students, parents, faculty and staff, so that we can have a bright, successful year,” she said.

Although Caporelli feels she has big shoes to fill as the successor to longtime principal Michelle David, who recently retired, she is excited to be part of the Arlington family and the many initiatives taking place at the school.

“I have several faculty members who are involved in the Highlander Institute’s program for blended learning,” she said. “We also have both of our kindergarten classes participating in the Boston Kindergarten program. There are a lot of great things happening here and I am excited to be able to support it all.”

Caporelli said she is a hands-on administrator and enjoys being among educators and students.

“I love to get down on the floor and be with the kids when they are learning,” she said.

Recently, Caporelli participated in the district leadership’s workshop on equity and diversity, a topic about which she is passionate.

“My goal is always to build relationships with our students and their families, and to learn their stories,” she said. “I believe that if you can’t connect with them, it’s hard for them to be comfortable with you. Learning is hard, and sometimes you need to get into that uncomfortable place in order for the learning to happen, and you need to be comfortable in your environment in order to get there.”

Caporelli recently joined the faculty and staff of Hugh B. Bain Middle School on their Neighborhood Walks to meet and greet the incoming sixth-graders, many of whom were Arlington students last year. Making those connections with former and current students and families are a top priority for her.

“I believe in the importance of making connections,” she said. “If we don’t reach a kid and figure out how they’re ticking, we aren’t doing our job.” Edward S. Rhodes Elementary School: Gina Armstrong

, principal

Cranston resident Gina Armstrong has been a familiar face around the Cranston Public Schools, especially during the past school year. She arrived as an occupational therapist in 2013 and was the district’s program supervisor.

“I started in the administration program at Providence College while I was in that position,” she said. “I graduated in May 2018 and I spent all of the last school year as a principal substitute in various elementary and middle schools across the district in addition to doing my program supervisor position. I gained a lot of additional experience in that role and I was really blessed to have those experiences last year. I was fortunate to have such great support from [Superintendent] Jeannine Nota-Masse.”

Armstrong is excited for the upcoming school year and looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm with the school community.

“I am an enthusiastic leader, hardworking, devoted and passionate about social-emotional learning and teaching kids using their learning styles,” she said. “My background in OT makes me very familiar with things like sensory processing, motor development, and what motivates children.”

As the newest leader at Rhodes, Armstrong looks forward to embracing the school community and culture at Rhodes as well as starting some new traditions. She is excited to welcome new students and their families, as well as many new staff members.

“I’m excited to welcome those who are coming to Rhodes from the Barrows community,” she said.

Armstrong’s goals for the new year are both educational and relationship-based.

“We have kindness and equity at the forefront, and of course we will be supporting all of our staff members’ efforts for high-quality teaching and learning,” she said. “My goal is to build solid relationships with our families and our community. I want this to be an inviting place where people want to come.” George J. Peters Elementary School: Janet Antonelli

, principal

Janet Antonelli said she is excited to be joining the family at George J. Peters Elementary School. She comes to Peters after having been principal at Chester Barrows for two years.

Additionally, she served as an assistant principal at Feinstein Middle School in Coventry for two years. She was a science teacher at Western Hills Middle School for 26 years prior to her roles as an administrator.

“I will be building on such a wonderful foundation that’s been started here,” she said. “I think of leading as serving the children and their families. I look forward to continuing the initiatives that have been started here and I am hoping to introduce a social-emotional learning program here as well. We will be taking the initial steps with that this year.”

Antonelli said she has received a warm welcomed from the Parent Teacher Organization over the summer months.

“We have met several times already and they are such a wonderful resource,” she said. “I look forward to working with them this year.”

Additionally, Antonelli has been meeting and greeting her staff as they have been stopping in over the summer to get their classrooms ready for a new year. She is excited to begin working with her staff to model collaborative, engaged learning in the classroom, a tie-in to her social-emotional learning work.

“I’m also looking forward to the increased integration and use of technology by the students in our classrooms, modeling it in classroom practices and lessons,” she said.

Antonelli said she cannot wait to meet all of her students and families when the school year begins.

“I really am so excited to be here in this community, and I know that it’s going to be an exciting year,” she said. William Dutemple Elementary School: Charlotte Joseph

, principal

Charlotte Josephs has joined the Dutemple Elementary School community after spending the past 16 years as principal of Woodridge Elementary School in Cranston. Prior to that, Josephs was an elementary educator and taught first, second and fourth grades in Middletown and Bristol.

Josephs is excited to be starting a new year in a new school and is looking forward to the opportunity to support the many initiatives that have been started at Dutemple.

“It’s very exciting to be here,” she said. “There are lots of new things going on here including blended and personalized learning training. Three of our teachers began their training last year as early adopters and this year we have several more who will be starting as well.”

Additionally, Josephs looks forward to being able to welcome both new staff and new families who are coming to Dutemple.

“We have a new kindergarten teacher and a new second-grade teacher this year," Josephs said.

As someone who loves examining data and using it to guide instruction, Josephs is ready to use her expertise in that area to help guide the school and to get to know the students and their needs, especially in the area of social-emotional needs.

“I’m looking forward to being able to help them get whatever resources they need,” she said. “I really want to support my staff and my students in any way I can.”

Dutemple’s fall carnival back to school event will be held by the PTO on the evening of Friday, Sept. 20.

Woodridge Elementary Elementary School: Marisa Jackson, principal

Marisa Jackson is a lifelong Cranston resident who attended Cranston Public Schools and has fond memories from her years as a student at Woodridge Elementary School, George J. Peters Elementary School, Western Hills Middle School and Cranston High School West.

She has arrived as principal at Woodridge after 18 years in the Providence Public Schools, where she first taught English Language Arts for grades six through eight, was a reading coach at the elementary level, and most recently was an assistant principal at Nathanael Greene Middle School.

Jackson credits her wide range of experiences in urban education – and in teaching children from their early formative years through middle school – as having provided her with a unique perspective on teaching and learning.

She has a passion for social-emotional learning and for educating the whole child. She also values building relationships with all of the partners in education, from parents and teachers to students and community partners.

Jackson said she is grateful for the warm welcome and support she has received from the Cranston Public Schools leadership team and her new colleagues. She looks forward to meeting and engaging with her new community at Woodridge.

“We have a rich history here with wonderful, experienced, talented teachers, and an engaged parent community. I hope to be able to bring in my background and my lenses of knowing what we are preparing students for at the middle school level, and from servicing every population of students in all different ways, using all different strategies to work with our changing population of students here in Cranston,” she said. “I want to maximize all of our experiences and talents to figure out what’s best for each child and to help my staff reach their own exciting goals for the year.” Hugh B. Bain Middle School: Keith Croft, principal

Keith Croft has been a familiar face in Cranston Public Schools for nearly two decades.

As he begins his 18th year in the district, he recounted the start of his journey in 2001, when he began as a physical education teacher at Edgewood Highland Elementary School. He has since held many administrative roles over the years at Dutemple, Gladstone, Stadium, Arlington and Barrows elementary schools.

Most recently, Croft spent five years as an assistant principal at Gladstone Elementary School. He is excited about his new role as principal at Bain, where he will see some familiar faces from his time spent at Gladstone.

Croft said that he is looking forward to strengthening the connections at Bain, especially with the students and their families. He is excited to work with his faculty and staff, and he hopes to embrace existing traditions – such as the recent neighborhood walks that took place prior to the start of the school year to meet incoming sixth-graders and their families – while establishing new ones.

Croft also looks forward to working closely with his administrative team, which includes returning members, Assistant Principal Brian Flinn and Dean Michael Walsh, as well as new Assistant Principal Erica Williams, who has joined the team after leading Rhodes Elementary School for a number of years.

This summer, Croft and his staff members came up with a hashtag, #BEEXTRA, which will be their motivating motto for the school year.

“It really sums up what we want to do this year,” he said.

Croft said he also looks forward to working closely with the elementary schools that feed into Bain.

“I think it’s important to connect with our elementary schools, because they know the families and the students that are coming to us, and it helps to strengthen the connections and the transition,” he said. Central administration: Michael Crudale, chief human resource officer

Michael Crudale is a lifelong resident of Cranston and a product of the Cranston Public Schools, having attended Woodridge Elementary School, Hugh B. Bain Middle School and Cranston High School West.

In 1994, he landed a job at Western Hills Middle School as a part-time physical education and health teacher. He remained for two years before being involuntarily transferred to Park View Middle School, where he taught all health classes all year long.

“I stayed at PVMS until just last year, and in 2012 I became an administrator there,” he said. “This year is my 25th year in the district. I joke that the faculty and community at Park View made me who I am today, because other than those first two years, I spent the rest of my career there. I learned a lot of different people there. I worked under several different administrations before becoming an administrator myself, and the faculty really helped to shape the educator and administrator that I am today.”

Crudale said that although his current role is different than those he had as a teacher and building administrator, he has taken his experiences with him and used them.

“Part of this job includes having to talk to people in our district who are about to be involuntarily transferred, and I tell them that I remember when that happened to me, and how upsetting that can be, but that it ended up being one of the best things that happened to me,” he said. “I am living proof that you just don’t know what’s on the other side of something like that. I’ve also found that being a union representative when I was a teacher and being an administrator involved in things like the evaluation system, for example, have given me experiences that I need in this role as well.”

Additionally, Crudale noted that his new role will allow him to make an impact across the district.

Crudale spent the 2018-19 school year shadowing Ray Votto, who retired in June as COO of the district. He said Votto taught him a great deal about the business and political aspects of the job, experiences he may not have had at the building level. He is now excited to take on the role himself.

“It’s an honor for me to be in this position,” he said. “I owe so much to this city. All three of my kids are students in the Cranston system, my wife grew up here and we wouldn’t have it any other way. There was no question that we’d be anywhere else.”

Returning elementary school building administrators

Eden Park: Courtney Sevigny

Edgewood Highland Elementary School: Marlene Gamba

Garden City Elementary School: Bryan Byerlee

Gladstone Street Elementary School: Susan Buonanno

Glen Hills Elementary School: Jay DeCristofaro

Oaklawn Elementary School: Jim Zanfini

Orchard Farms Elementary School: Beth Basile

Stadium Elementary School: Cheri Sacco

Stone Hill Elementary School: Tricia Totolo

Daniel D. Waterman: Paul DePalma

Returning middle school building administrators

Hope Highlands Middle School: Alex Kanelos

Park View Middle School: Cheryl Anderson

Western Hills Middle School: Tim Vesey

Returning high school building administrators

Cranston Area Career and Technical Center: Zachary Farrell

Cranston High School East: Sean Kelly

Cranston High School West: Thomas Barbieri

NEL/CPS Construction & Career Academy: Dennis Curran

Returning central office administrators

Jeannine Nota-Masse, superintendent

Norma Cole, assistant superintendent

Joseph Balducci, chief financial officer

Joseph Rotz, executive director of educational programs and services

Michele Simpson, executive director of pupil personnel services

Roxanne Gustafson, director of education programs

Ann Bouchard, special education administrator

Kimberly O’Connell, director of early childhood

Cheryl Mercurio, special education administrator

Lisa Abbott, special education administrator

Vincent McAteer, transportation

Ed Collins, chief of facilities management and capital projects

James Dillon, executive director of SIS/data management

Kim Magnelli, director of SIS/data management

Donna-Marie Frappier, chief technology officer

Kristen Ward, ESL department