For the 2020-2021 school year, Glen Rock Public Schools have a new English supervisor, Shari Krapels. However, growing up, education was never something she planned on pursuing.

After graduating from high school on Long Island, Krapels attended the University of Delaware, majoring in English with a double minor in history and legal studies. She then obtained her masters degree and teaching certificate from Montclair State University. Looking back on it, this came as a surprise to her.

“I never saw myself going into education,” Krapels said. “I was graduating college in 2009, right after the recession hit, and I knew with my majors, people would not be banging down my door to hire me.”

This made her realize she needed to go back to school to get a graduate degree to better prepare her for when the recession is over. With her majors, and passion for education, Krapels fell in love with teaching.

“I really lucked into it. I think about that all the time, the fact that I just really got lucky that I loved what I did because it was not part of my plan,” Krapels said.

After graduating from Montclair State University in 2011, one of her professors was the English Supervisor at Clifton High School, where she began her teaching career. From September 2011-January 2012, she served as a maternity leave replacement.

From there, she found her home at Cresskill High School for nine years, teaching all four grade levels of English and Journalism. Despite loving Cresskill, she found a similar love for Glen Rock upon arriving in July.

“Over the nine years I was at Cresskill, I found that I loved the small town community school because everyone gets to know each other really well,” Krapels said. “I would teach students for multiple years, and that was such a special, cool, unique thing.” 

This made Glen Rock very appealing to her, as it has the same feel. One big difference for her was the switch from a teacher to supervisor. Despite the differences, it has been a seamless transition so far.

“When I came over to Glen Rock, everyone was super nice and welcoming, and really on the same page as I am when I think about what is important in education.”