School Board Stays Local In Picking First Claremont Road School Vice-Principal

Franklin Park School principal Purvi Shah, newly appointed Claremont Road School vice-principal Madlen Rizkalla and Claremont Road School principal Nicole Sury Bevere, left to right, at the May 25 Board of Education meeting.

A 12-year educational veteran was named the first vice-principal of the new Claremont Road Elementary School May 24 by the Board of Education.

Madlen Rizkalla will follow her former boss from Franklin Park School to the new elementary school, slated to open in September. She begins her new job on July 1 with a salary of $95,000.

“This has been a passion of mine for the last three years,” Rizkalla said after her appointment was approved by the board.

Rizkalla has spent the last 10 years of her career in the district at Franklin Park School, she said. During that time, she’s taught Kindergarten, 3rd and 4th Grade, she said.

Currently in academic support at the school, Rizkalla said she loves “guiding fellow teachers, and this is just something I felt naturally drawn to.”

Rizkalla follows her former boss, Nicole Sury Bevere, from Franklin Park to Claremont Road. Sury Bevere was named principal of the new school earlier this year.

“Most of my time has been working at Franklin Park School under Nicole when she started as principal, and now under Purvi,” she said. Purvi Shah was appointed the new Franklin Park principal earlier this year.

“They’ve been the ones who have mentored me throughout this whole process, and guided me throughout this whole process, and I’m just so happy to be working with my mentor and now my new boss again,” Rizkalla said.

“I’ve been very focused and very driven, moreso to serve the community in a different capacity, to serve the teachers, to serve the students,” she said.

A native of Jersey City, Rizkalla spent the first two years of her teaching career in Newark, where she taught Kindergarten and 1st Grade, she said.

She and her husband, an Orthodox Coptic priest, live in Old Bridge with their three children.

“Now that I’ve gotten a position here in Franklin, I’m hoping to move closer,” she said.

“We are excited that she will be joining our administrative team,” schools Superintendent John Ravally said. “She has proven to be an excellent leader thus far, and we are excited about what’s to come.”

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