LEARNING IN 3-D: For the fifth year in a row, John Witherspoon Middle School is the recipient of an ExxonMobil National Math and Science Initiative grant of $500. The grant was presented by gasoline sales manager Joseph Hooven to PPS science supervisor Cherry Sprague, who accepted the gift on behalf of the school. This year’s grant will be used to further enhance the flourishing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) program at JW. Left to right: seventh grader Isai Onofrio, Mr. Hooven, Ms. Sprague, JW STEM teacher Randy Casey, and seventh grader Tracy Meng.

After being suspended with pay for a week, Princeton’s long-serving animal control officer Mark Johnson is no longer employed by the municipality as of March 2.

But the terms of what Town Administrator Marc Dashield described as “separated employment” have not been disclosed. It is unclear from the terminology used by the municipality whether Mr. Johnson voluntarily resigned or whether his employment was “terminated.”

Mr. Dashield would give no explanation to Town Topics with respect to the matter after it was raised during Mayor Liz Lempert’s regular press briefing Monday. He said he could not discuss the terms of the separation.

The news came not long after Mr. Johnson’s suspension on February 23, the same day on which charges he had brought against a Princeton resident had been dismissed in Princeton Municipal Court. The timing led some to wonder whether Mr. Johnson had been suspended because he had written tickets which were later questioned. But in an online article in Planet Princeton yesterday, Krystal Knapp attributed Mr. Johnson’s suspension and later departure as being due to the municipality’s discovery that it was unaccountably low on rabies vaccine.

On Monday Mr. Johnson said that his employment with the municipality had been “terminated” but would not comment further.

Mr. Dashield would say only that the municipality has offered Mr. Johnson a separation agreement, which he has not yet accepted. “The agreement gives him time to review the terms. Therefore, I am unable to comment any further on the issue or share the terms.” Dashield did not respond to a requests for comment on what prompted the “separation.”

Having served as Princeton’s animal control officer for over two decades,  Mr. Johnson is well-known to the community for incidents that include removing bats and unwanted animal intruders into homes and keeping track of sightings of deer, foxes, coyotes, and bears.