Vanessa Reale hired as next Portsmouth High principal

She will succeed Joseph Amaral, who is retiring

By Jim McGaw
Posted 6/14/22

PORTSMOUTH — Vanessa Reale, who has previous experience as a principal and headmaster, has been selected by Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy to be Portsmouth High School’s next …

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Vanessa Reale hired as next Portsmouth High principal

She will succeed Joseph Amaral, who is retiring

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Vanessa Reale, who has previous experience as a principal and headmaster, has been selected by Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy to be Portsmouth High School’s next principal.

She will succeed Joseph Amaral, who is retiring at the end of the school year. The School Committee unanimously approved a three-year contract for Reale on June 7.

“Dr. Reale is an experienced educator who has served in leadership roles from elementary through high schools levels in Connecticut and Massachusetts,” said Kenworthy. “She impressed everyone from the initial interview process to an interview with myself and Dr. Copeland, and then one final meeting with me. She has done her homework on Portsmouth High School and the district, and I think she will be a great principal for the school and addition to our leadership team.”

Reale, who is relocating to this area along with her husband, thanked her supporters.

“I am humbled, I am honored and I am eager to get into the high school,” she said, adding that health and wellness and safety are her “two major concerns” as an educator.

“I’m struck by the sense of community that I see in Portsmouth. It’s really like nowhere else I’ve ever been,” she said.

According to her LinkedIn page, Reale had been an adjunct professor of psychology at Johnson & Wales University, Providence College, and Fairfield University since August 2016. She was a principal in the Fall River public schools from 2018 to 2020, headmaster at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in Connecticut from 2010 to 2012, and principal at East Haven High School in Connecticut from 2006 to 2010.

At its June 7 meeting, the school board also approved a one-year contract renewal for Joao Arruda, principal at the middle school.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.