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Capasso will spend his retirement traveling with his wife of 45 years, Maria, and enjoying being a grandfather. He is the father of two adult children, Christina and Jeffrey, and one grandson, two-year-old Dylan.
Throughout his career at Croton-Harmon, Capasso has been a firm believer in providing high school students with progressive freedoms, including the ability to leave campus during lunch periods as long as such freedoms were handled responsibly by students.
He also eliminated “gatekeeping” in Advanced Placement courses, opening AP enrollment to all students who were interested. Under his leadership, AP enrollment has nearly doubled with no decline in Croton-Harmon’s AP scores.
Capasso also said he is proud that Croton-Harmon High School has repeatedly been the recipient of U.S. News and World Report’s gold award, which recognizes the high school for excellence and lists it among the top 500 high schools in the country.
Capasso worked with the faculty to increase course offerings in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). CHHS now offers Computer Science 1, 2 and Advanced Placement, AP Calculus B/C, Sports Medicine and Introduction to Engineering.
During his retirement, Capasso plans to stay connected with Croton-Harmon colleagues.
“I will definitely keep in touch,” he said, “because this has been a great place to work and the staff here feels like family.”
Before joining Croton-Harmon Union Free School District, Capasso spent 25 years in the Trumbull, CT, school district, beginning his career as a math teacher and later as the district’s math and technology director.
Capasso later moved on to the Bridgeport, CT, school system as technology coordinator, serving that system’s 38 schools.
Quickly realizing how much he missed working with students and teachers, he went "back to school," serving for the next 10 years as assistant headmaster and then headmaster at Greenwich High School.
What attracted Capasso to Croton was its size.
”I love Croton-Harmon’s small size,” he said. “I have had the pleasure of getting to know many individual students and staff members. You can do that in Croton.”
“I’ll miss my interactions with students and staff members here,” he said. “And of course, the intellectual stimulation that comes with leading a high school.”
Topping his to-do list will be a family vacation in Hawaii. After that, you might spot Capasso, an avid golfer, on the courses in Connecticut.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Deborah O’Connell said that the school district will conduct a search for a new high school principal during the school year that will include student, faculty/staff and community participation.
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