Considering her zeal, it is hard to imagine that Christine Capaci originally had no desire to pursue a vocation in education. But the career has turned out to be the perfect fit for Capaci, a Plainsboro resident, who will begin her tenure as the new principal of the Village School in July.##M:[more]##
Born and raised in West Milford, Capaci — whose parents owned a butcher shop in Bloomingdale — recalls taking a drive with her mother soon after graduating high school and discussing her options for college. Her mother listed Capaci’s various activities, including her involvement in teaching CCD and swim lessons and helping out with the Girl Scouts. “I think you would make a great teacher,” Capaci recalls her mother saying. In response, Capaci said she told her mother, “I’m not graduating from high school only to go back to school.”
She originally worked toward a degree in speech pathology while attending Old Dominion University in Virginia, where she found that the career would involve a considerable amount of time in the lab, away from the kids. But “I craved to have more contact with kids,” and Capaci turned her focus to teaching.
During her first year student teaching at an urban district in Norfolk, VA, Capaci says she realized “it was my purpose — it wasn’t a job for me.”
She began teaching students at the middle school level, some of whom were 16 years old and still in seventh grade, as the school had done away with “social promotions.” But Capaci was persistent, and intent on trying to do what she could to keep them in school. Even though the students sometimes gave her a hard time throughout the year, it was one day while they were a taking a test — and were quietly doing so — when she realized “I love these kids,” and that she wanted to do everything possible to help them succeed.
Capaci says she formed relationships with the students to show how much she cared that they succeeded. Then, two things started happening. First, they realized that they were becoming noticed. And, “really for the first time, they really mattered,” she explains. “They were no longer anonymous.”
In fact, Capaci still keeps in contact with some of her former students. One former student, who is now serving in the Navy, sent her a text message on Mother’s Day, to say that Capaci has been like a mother to her, and reminded her of how much of a difference she has made in her life. When Capaci was pregnant with her son, Dalton, who is now 6, one of the students gave her his favorite stuffed animal turtle to give to her own son.
Her work at the school included work related to a drive to save the Chesapeake Bay, which included writing an oral history book. Capaci says the first year, she and the science teacher worked on honing the students’ skills, and when the students entered eighth grade, she took them to an island in Chesapeake Bay to hear the oral history, which the students would later transcribe. By the time the students were in ninth grade, they had already become published authors. When the students were seniors, Capaci participated in the USA Today All Teacher Team, which took a group of students to Russia as part of an exchange program.
During her time as a teacher, Capaci also worked toward her administrative degree, also at Old Dominion University, after which she was appointed to her first quasi-administrative position. And in that position, she went great lengths for her students, which at one point, even included knocking on doors to find them.
Capaci worked with juvenile court judges, case workers, and other officials to keep students in school. When a student does not show up for school, Capaci explains, it is a symptom of something happening at home. She would investigate the root causes as to why those students weren’t showing up, and at times that required her to knock on their doors and find out what was going on.
One student, for example, was not coming to school because she had two children and had no one to care for them. While one would think traveling the streets may be dangerous, Capaci shakes that notion off. “I was so worried about her situation, that that was all that mattered to me.” Her philosophy is that there are two things an administrator can do when it comes to bad attendance — one is to hope the student shows up, or the other is to take a more proactive role and do something about it.
Capaci took the more proactive role in working with the students, even creating an after-school dancing program to keep them involved, and eventually, she says, their attendance records improved.
Her tenure at the middle school produced some of her fondest memories, Capaci said, but at the time, she and her ex-husband made the move back to New Jersey as a result of his job. And when she landed in Central Jersey, she took her philosophies along with her. “I think that kids should have everything they need to have an academically rich learning environment,” and teachers are the main tools to ensure that happens, she says. After arriving in New Jersey, they lived in Union, and she began working for a mathematical teacher consultant company called LL Teach, based out of Jersey City.
Not three months into her employment there, she was snatched up by the Cranbury School, which offered her the assistant principal position, where she has worked since November, 2003. As a result of her involvement at the Columbia program in that district, she interacted with officials from the WW-P district, where she realized “these guys are on the cutting edge of everything.” She also knew of the school’s reputation and saw the type of work her son, who attends Town Center Elementary, was bringing home. She and her son moved to Plainsboro last year.
“At the time I wasn’t looking for a job,” she says, pointing out she loves her position in Cranbury. But, “it would be fabulous to work in this district.”
WW-P officials offered her the principal position when Marilyn Hynes retired from Town Center Elementary and Brian Stevens transferred from Village to take on responsibilities there. “When things are ready to happen, they happen. So here I am, and I’m excited about it.”
Capaci said she knew she would like working in the district the minute she walked in for the interview, and saw one of the teachers on her knees, helping a child who was crying. In addition to fitting her teaching philosophies, Capaci says that one of the other characteristics she likes about the district is that it is centered on the children, exemplified by the myriad of student creations and artwork decorating the halls — a plus for Capaci, who says she doesn’t “want to be in a place with bare walls.”
Capaci says she is looking forward to “really highlighting the achievements of the kids, getting to know them and having lasting relationships with their parents and families.”
And she says she can’t be more thrilled about working in the place where she now lives. “When you live in the very town or community where you work, you have a vested interest” in seeing it flourish, she says. “It’s pretty heartwarming to run into people in the grocery store, and have them know you.”
One difference between her past experience and this district, Capaci points out, is that “there’s nothing broken here,” but she says she wants to do her best to maintain the district’s excellence. Still, Capaci says her past experiences, both in Virginia and in Cranbury, have made her who she is today. “You don’t just suddenly become a principal,” she says. “A variety of people worked with me and showed me the way.”
