Superintendent
Hopedale Public Schools
Throughout her career, the 2026 Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year has focused on gratitude for the opportunity to serve students and families.
Karen Crebase is well aware of the challenges facing Superintendents today. As she approaches the end of her tenth year as Superintendent of the Hopedale Public Schools, Karen fully understands the pressures associated with tight budgets, political tension, policy debates, and countless other issues that district leaders across the Commonwealth confront every day.
Through it all, however, Karen said she has maintained a sense of joy and fulfillment in the job by focusing on gratitude for the opportunity to make a positive impact in the lives of students.
That approach was crystalized for Karen in the wake of the COVID pandemic, when she said, “the messaging about schools felt very negative,” and she sensed pervasive discouragement and burnout among her staff.
“When I started reflecting on how to shift the culture,” she said, “I thought about how lucky I was to have this job, and how lucky I was to impact people – to impact children – every day.”
In 2023, Karen opened the school year by giving every educator a small notebook and challenging them to jot down one “moment of gratitude” every day – any small interaction or experience that made them thankful for their work. On particularly difficult days, Karen suggested they look back on what they’d written in their notebooks to be reminded about their purpose.
Karen was encouraged by the response to her idea and the gradual improvement she saw in staff morale. Two years ago, she expanded the project by creating an internal website, where she publishes “moments of gratitude” that staff members have submitted to share with their colleagues – often receiving 5-10 submissions per week. Karen said staff members consistently remark how much they look forward to reading the entries each Friday.
“I think it has shifted the conversation,” she said. “When I’m in schools, people can’t wait to tell me something positive they’ve experienced instead of something negative.”
She explains on the website, “Gratitude is more than just a fleeting feeling; it is a powerful practice that can transform our personal and professional lives. Research has shown that regularly practicing gratitude can lead to improved mental health, increased resilience, and stronger relationships.”
Last summer, in her address at the Paul J. Andrews Summer Executive Institute to kick off her tenure as President of M.A.S.S., Karen described the initiative to her colleagues and its impact in Hopedale. She said she is moved by the number of peers who have adopted something similar in their own districts.
Leadership Roles at a Young Age
Her path to school and district leadership, Karen said, was “traditional” in some ways, but also occurred “sooner than I would have expected.”
As a child, Karen recalls setting up a teacher’s desk in the basement of her family home in Wallingford, Connecticut, complete with an old-school green chalkboard, and she “made all of the neighborhood kids come over to play school.” By the end of elementary school, she began to realize that not all children shared her love of the classroom, and she began to consider how she could help those who were struggling.
As an undergraduate at Colby College, she majored in Sociology and minored in both Education and African-American Studies. At Colby, she was inspired by Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a professor of color and a Baptist minister, with whom she is still in contact today.
“Cheryl took me under her wing and really helped me to see how limited my lens on education was,” Karen recalled. “She helped open my eyes to the experience of others that was very different from my own.”
After graduation, Karen applied for Teach For America and began teaching at an “under-resourced” public school in Houston, Texas, where Karen said she experienced being a racial minority for the first time.
“That set me on a path for what I wanted to do,” she said, crediting that experience with an outlook on equity and opportunity that would sustain her throughout her career.
Karen returned to the Northeast to earn a Master’s degree from Harvard, and although she had planned to return to classroom teaching, she accepted a position as an assistant principal in the Nashua (NH) School District at the age of 26. She would spend the next 10 years in Nashua, later becoming principal and Assistant Superintendent in the district.
When she began to apply for her first Superintendent position, Karen was immediately drawn to the opportunity in Hopedale, particularly because it was a small enough district that she knew she could “be on the ground and see kids every day.” Karen said it was the only Superintendency for which she applied, and she has remained in the role since 2016.
Like most Superintendents of small districts (Hopedale enrolls about 1,100 students in three schools), Karen has no assistant superintendent and therefore wears many hats, including serving as the school business administrator. It was an expectation of the School Committee when she was hired, Karen said, that with support from an accountant on staff, Karen would be primarily responsible for development and oversight of the district budget. Early in her tenure, she earned her licensure in school business administration.
After 10 years at the helm, Karen will step down as Superintendent at the end of this school year, but she will remain in the district as a special adviser. The School Committee is in the final stages of hiring Karen’s successor, who will assume the role on July 1. Karen has agreed to continue working to support the next Superintendent through the transition, particularly to advise about fiscal management and other critical responsibilities.
Innovations in Student Learning Experiences
Reflecting on her accomplishments in Hopedale over the past decade, Karen said she is proud to have led the district in providing a more student-focused, project-based, innovative education for students. For example:
- This year, Hopedale launched the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity (CIRC) at Memorial Elementary School, which offers students a series of nine-week enrichment courses, integrating art, digital media, health and wellness, and music. Through CIRC, students engage in hands-on learning that promotes critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving. Projects this year included the design of a new school playground, and “Reimagining Draper,” in which students shared their visions for the reuse of the former Draper Factory in town.
- Karen and her team also secured grants to fund the creation of a new innovation pathway at Hopedale Junior-Senior High School, giving students exposure to career-based options and work-based learning. The school now offers three innovation pathways: Business, Biomedical Science, and Manufacturing, Engineering, and Technology.
- Karen partnered with her colleagues in the 12 districts in the Blackstone Valley Superintendents’ Consortium to launch BVExcel. With support from American Student Assistance, the program offers non-traditional courses to expose students to career options and build industry skills. BVExcel provides a series of half-semester, credit-bearing courses that would be difficult for any district to offer on their own, including healthcare, manufacturing, welding, carpentry, pottery, cybersecurity, robotics, and more.
Karen noted that over the past 10 years, Hopedale’s population of English Learners – though still relatively small – has increased significantly, from 1.4% when she began to 7.4% today. She said, “It’s been really interesting to work with our community to ensure that all of our students feel a sense of belonging, and to bring new cultures into the schools.”
The most challenging aspects of being a Superintendent today, Karen said, are the “changing dynamics of the world, and the impact they have on kids” – including fiscal pressures and negative perceptions of public education that fuel mistrust.
She said the financial realities facing most school districts – particularly small districts – grow increasingly difficult each year, as costs continue to rise and revenue remains relatively flat. Yet she believes those “small, personalized school districts are part of the beauty of Massachusetts and what has kept us at the top of public education.”
Despite the challenges, Karen said she is hopeful that other educators will aspire to district leadership roles. Her advice to new Superintendents is simply: “Enjoy the ride.”
“The job can be overwhelming, and there’s a lot to it, but we’re only one person, so we have to prioritize,” she said. “I would tell new Superintendents not to try to do everything and be everything to everyone. Take the time to see the moments in the job that bring you great joy. The job can burn you out, and so you have to balance the rigor of the work – the budget, the policies, the School Committee meetings, the sports, and the suspension hearings – you have to balance all of that with the joy.”
Extensive Involvement in M.A.S.S.
In addition to the joy she experiences in her own district, Karen describes her involvement at the state level through M.A.S.S. as “life-changing.” Soon after she was hired in Hopedale, Karen participated in the M.A.S.S. New Superintendent Induction Program (NSIP) and became active in the Worcester County Roundtable. Through these and other opportunities, Karen said she began to rely heavily on her colleagues for feedback, support, and camaraderie.
In 2021, Karen was recruited to serve on the M.A.S.S. Executive Committee, and she went on to become Vice-President and President-Elect before becoming President for the current school year. During Karen’s Presidency, the association has been engaged in important advocacy work on state education policy, most notably the process to develop new graduation requirements.
Karen said it was particularly important for M.A.S.S. to welcome and engage Pedro Martinez as the new Commissioner this year and “to assure him that Massachusetts Superintendents have always believed in high standards, and that we are all working hard to meet those high standards.”
Karen has been deeply impressed by and grateful for the role that M.A.S.S. plays in influencing decisions at the state level and creating opportunities for members to learn, share, and network with one another.
“This job has not just been about Hopedale and my Superintendency,” she said. “Where I have found the most joy – in addition to my students and staff – is through the connections I’ve made across the state. M.A.S.S. really opened that door for me. It’s my colleagues who lift me up. The ideas and resources they’ve shared with me so willingly have made a huge difference and impact on my life.”
Earlier this year, Karen was named Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year, in recognition of her leadership at the state and local levels. In February, she was honored in a ceremony in Nashville during the national conference of AASA, the School Superintendents Association.
Finding Time for Family and Travel
Karen said her career path would not have been possible without the support of her family. She and her husband, Judd Braverman, have two grown children: Myles, who will soon graduate from Colby College, and Avery, a junior at California State University, Fullerton.
In her free time, Karen is an avid cyclist, often riding 25 miles or more each weekend. For many years, she and her family participated in Bike MS, riding more than 100 miles to raise money in honor of Karen’s sister, who has multiple sclerosis. Karen has traveled extensively and typically reads 50-60 “pleasure books” every year. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Blackstone Valley Hub for Workforce Development.
Today, Karen looks forward to serving in a different role next year, advising her successor on the job, while continuing to support Hopedale families and staff. She will encourage the next Superintendent to spend as much time as possible in schools, visiting classrooms and speaking with children and adults alike about their experiences.
“You have to force yourself to do that, because it’s easy to get stuck in your office,” she said. “But it’s those everyday interactions – especially time with kids – that bring me the most joy and gratitude.”
