GREENFIELD — After an approximately three-hour round of final interviews Monday evening, the School Committee voted unanimously to offer Carol Kruser the job as the school district’s next superintendent.
Following former Superintendent Karin Patenaude’s resignation in July, the School Committee established a hiring committee to hold public meetings, establish a list of priorities for the ideal candidate, select a pool of qualified candidates and hold preliminary interviews. In the meantime, Roland Joyal Jr. has been serving as interim superintendent.
Kruser, who most recently worked as Chicopee Public Schools’ assistant superintendent for student support services, was interviewed by committee members, as well as Greenfield Education Association President Tara Cloutier and Vice President Judy Bennett. The interview came after the other remaining candidate, Sharon Cournoyer, who serves as superintendent at Regional School District 19 in Storrs, Connecticut, was asked the same eight interview questions as Kruser.
“What I really liked best about [Kruser’s] interview is how specific she was in answering questions. Her examples were very real, not theoretical,” committee member Ann Childs said in deliberations. “I would be comfortable with either of these women as superintendent. They struck me as very knowledgeable, experienced, educated, good people. I think we are incredibly lucky that our choice is between awesome and awesome.”
While all the committee members who spoke during deliberations on Monday expressed a shared sentiment that both candidates were qualified for the job, they cited Kruser’s experience in special education and student behavioral management, as well as her familiarity with Title IX policy.
Other committee members commended Kruser’s decision to implement a cellphone ban at Chicopee Public Schools — enforced by Yondr pouches, which are also used in Greenfield — the year that students returned to school in person following the pandemic.
“She’s a licensed superintendent and a licensed special educator. … Her undergrad degree is in English language arts. So as an educator for 40-some-odd years, she impressed me,” committee member Melodie Goodwin said. “She knows what she’s talking about. To walk into school post-COVID and say, ‘We’re putting all your cellphones away’ was, as she said, a career-breaker. She could have lost her job. She stood behind the teachers, she listened to them. She made a choice to stand for the teachers and the children because she believed it was the right thing to do. Hands down, I am team Carol.”
When the committee asked Kruser to provide an example of a time when she actively sought and responded to feedback from teachers, she explained that she hoped to implement an electronic feedback system in Greenfield to track reports of behavioral issues, similar to a digital program she implemented in Chicopee.
“One of the things I really focused on, as someone who handles discipline and someone who handles social-emotional [learning], was to implement an electronic reporting system for teachers so that they could [notify] their administration when they were having behavioral issues, and they would report whether it was teacher-managed,” Kruser said. “We did professional development on what they thought should be dealt with by teachers and what they felt administrators should deal with. We worked with the principals a lot on those things.”
Kruser, 57, in her most recent recent role, served on Chicopee’s District Attendance Team, which helped to decrease chronic absenteeism by 2% in the district for the 2024-2025 school year, according to her resume. She also served as her district’s Title IX coordinator.
Kruser has 24 years of experience working in education. Prior to her role as Chicopee’s assistant superintendent for student support services, a position she has held since 2023, she served as principal of Chicopee High School between 2018 and 2023.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Kruser said she had accepted the job in Greenfield, depending on the outcome of union negotiations. Until July 1, when she expects to begin her role as superintendent, Kruser said she plans to learn everything there is to know about Greenfield and its School Department.
“I’m very excited about being selected, and I’m very grateful and honored that the committee and the community have put their faith in me to run Greenfield Public Schools. I know it’s going to be a very bright future for me and for the city,” she said. “I will work at preparing and researching, getting to know policies and procedures and everything I can about Greenfield. That way I can hit the ground running when I start, and then I will spend a lot of time in the beginning getting to know people, building relationships with people, and then letting people have the time to get to know me.”