NARRAGANSETT — In the fall of 2002 Gail Dandurand signed up for a course at Rhode Island College, eager to explore a move from teaching to management yet secretly hoping she wouldn’t like it.

Even though she’d served as the grade 5 house leader at Chariho Regional Middle School and the lead teacher at Hope Valley Elementary School, she had mixed feelings about leaving the classroom to be a full-time administrator.

“Having a class was like having a family,” says the Stonington, Conn., native, now a resident of Hopkinton.

Her worst fears came true. She liked the class, enough to take another and eventually take a year-long sabbatical, during which she earned a master’s degree in educational administration. She also accepted an internship at the Garden City School in Cranston.

Dandurand returned to teaching at Hope Valley Elementary in the fall of 2005 and applied for the assistant principal’s position at Narragansett Elementary School the following year.

Since the fall of 2006 she has worked with principal Susan Naysnerski and other staff members on a long list of tasks — writing the school improvement plan, analyzing test data, scheduling classes, working with the PTO — that have prepared her for the day that she might be a principal.

That day is almost at hand.

Last month, on the recommendation of Supt. Katherine E. Sipala, the School Committee chose Dandurand to take over as principal when Naysnerski retires this summer.

Sipala, who describes Dandurand as “a very strong teacher and a very strong leader,” made the recommendation without conducting a search.

“When you have an opening, you look at the needs of the school, the programming and the building and you say, ‘What do they need right now? Do they need a drastic change of direction or do they need to continue on that path?’ And it was the latter,” Sipala said.

For Dandurand, 41, who also has a master’s degree in elementary education, the appointment is a dream come true, even if it does not put her back in the classroom. She was also a finalist this year for a principal’s post in Westerly, but she said she accepted Narragansett’s offer because she has enjoyed working with Naysnerski and the school’s staff.

She also knows the school.

“I know the strengths in the building, and I know the areas that we can improve on,” she said.

Her goals include improving communication with parents and providing opportunities for students at all levels to go beyond the usual classroom expectations.

Dandurand’s former boss, Hope Valley Elementary School principal Richard Finlaw, said she is up to the challenge.

“The wonderful thing is that she’s going to be able to lead teachers and all kids,” he said. “The sad part is that she’s no longer going to be in the classroom, because she was an outstanding teacher.”

As the lead teacher at Hope Valley, Dandurand served a role that was similar to that of assistant principal, said Finlaw, who recalled her sharp focus as they worked together on various projects.

“I’d go off on something else because something else came across my desk, and she’d come back at you and say ‘Well, when are we going to get this done?’ ” he said.

When she’s not working, Dandurand is with her husband, George, and daughter, Abigail, 13. She says becoming a mother affected her as a teacher, because it made her think that if she did not want something for her daughter, she did not want it for her students.

One other goal Dandurand has is to continue the daily visits to classrooms that she and Naysnerski are known for.

“To be an effective administrator,” she said, “you can’t forget what it was like to be a teacher.”

redgar@projo.com