To the Editor:

Recognizing the era that began in 2007, the school board, administration, faculty, and staff have worked together over the last few years to reexamine our operations and programs with an eye toward running them as efficiently as possible with your tax dollars, while continuing to prepare our students well for life in the 21st century. As reported at every monthly meeting, the Board has focused on savings, efficiencies, conservation, and cost containment in areas such as energy, insurances, health benefits, and work schedules in order to deliver declining tax increases to our residents even as we strive to maintain the Princeton Schools’ standards of excellence. Like every homeowner, the Board of Education copes with trends in energy and health costs, so we kindly ask your support for the Budget on Tuesday, April 17, with the smallest tax increase in many years (2 percent).

We are living in an era of great debate over the efficacy of public education, as well as uncertainty over public funding of education. Nevertheless, the Board and its employees are rising to the challenges imposed by the New Jersey department of education to align curriculum with “core content standards,” updating teacher evaluation protocols, as well as supporting valued local initiatives such as funding full-day pre-K and kindergarten classrooms; maintaining arts education; and addressing the needs of each child who learns differently for any reason, or has limited English proficiency. At the same time, we can all be very proud of the accomplishments of our PHS seniors who have enjoyed so much community support and so much national recognition for their achievements. Please vote on the April 17 to continue this record of success

Dorothy Bedford
Prospect Avenue