Dear Cashman Families,

I am so excited to become the 4th principal for the Charles C. Cashman Elementary School.  I have heard so many great things about our school and I cannot wait to start working with all of you.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, share a little more about me and my family.  I was born in Araraquara, Brazil. I lived in Brazil until I completed my Bachelor's degree in Speech, Language and Audiology Therapy and Pathology. After graduation, I was given the opportunity to come to the United States to learn English, to further my professional career, and complete my Master's Degree. At that time I moved to Massachusetts where I have lived for most of my time here. Over the past 20 years I have been able to accomplish a lot professionally and personally.

Today, my family and I live in West Newbury. My husband Shawn and I have two children Shawn and Grace.

Shawn Patrick is 11 years old and is in 5th grade and Grace will be 7 years old and is in 1st grade.  We also have a dog! She joined our family two years ago. "Jingle" arrived as a very special gift on Christmas day!

We love doing things as a family. Last winter Shawn joined the ski race team at Bradford and Grace continues her ski lessons hoping to join the team in the next couple of years. Between our school events and extra-curricular activities, I enjoy listening to music, reading, cook (baking especially), and all sorts of arts and crafts. Yoga, pilates, walking outside, and bike riding are a few of the other things I enjoy doing.

The part I love most about living in New England is that we have all four seasons defined. I enjoy the changes of temperature and nature of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  Where I grew up, we had very little change in weather and temperature from one season to the next. Our lowest temperature would somewhere around 50 degrees and highest could reach 110 degrees!! As you can imagine, I still get very excited about the first snow fall each year! I also learned to enjoy our New England sport teams, and have become a real fan of the Red Sox and Patriots. I would love to go see the Patriots play at Gillette Stadium at some point!

I look forward to continuing to share all about me, and more importantly getting to know all of you!! I hope we will build a strong, open, honest and respectful relationship that will help us move the Cashman School forward while ensuring all of our students are meeting success.

With appreciation,

Karina Mascia-Fayles

(Ms. Mascia)