The school district has named the new principals for the elementary and middle school for the 2025-2026 school year.

Current elementary school vice principal Sara Russo has been named the new middle school principal and former principal of Park Elementary School in Warwick, Rhode Island Daniel Sylvestre has been named the new elementary school principal.

Under Sylvestre’s leadership in 2023, Park Elementary was named a National Blue Ribbon School, an award given out by the Department of Education to schools who have shown high levels of academic success or that have shown significant growth.

Sylvestre has also held principal and assistant principal positions in the Marshfield and Plymouth school systems.

Beth Chandler who has been the elementary school principal since 2017, will step into a new role as director of beyond school time effective Nov. 1. Current director Jane Fondulis is retiring in late October.

“It’s really exciting because it’s going to offer so many outstanding opportunities,” Chandler said.

Chandler first entered the school system as an elementary school teacher in 2004 and for the last 21 years, she has worked her way up to principal of Wareham elementary in 2017.

As the director, Chandler said she will be responsible for overseeing the night school at the high school, numerous after school activities and the distribution of a variety of state grant funds.

“The beyond school time director supports a lot of experiential learning,” Chandler said. “Experiential learning is about providing students with opportunities to learn outside the traditional classroom.”

Many of those opportunities come through various grants which Chandler said she will continue to support.

One such grant is the playful learning grant which supports learning through play for kids in preschool through grade three.

“It’s not taking away the traditional learning of a teacher teaching a student,” she said. “It’s students playfully learning curriculum in a different manner.”

A new initiative Chandler will oversee is the implementation of a preschool at the high school through the Commonwealth Preschool Initiative grant, which provides funding for the district for preschool and to provide a variety of resources to area preschools.

“We’re opening more opportunities for young children in Wareham and also offering more opportunities for the high school students,” she said. “This way they’ll be able to earn their Early Childhood Certificates so they can work in daycares.”

Chandler added being able to support preschool age kids through these grants will help them be “kindergarten ready.”

“The kids need to be developmentally prepared to enter the public school system in a way that’s going to make sure they are acclimated to what it’s like to be around other kids and have a full day of school,” she said. “So often little children come to us without previous experiences which causes frustrations so this is going to help them be more prepared.”

Middle school principal Tracie Cote will also have a new position as the director of teaching, learning and technology for the district.