By Donald Gilpin

Jeffrey Liao

In this week’s Board of Education (BOE) candidate profile, Jeffrey Liao describes his education, background, and his priorities for the future of the Princeton Public Schools (PPS).

Liao will be challenging incumbents Betsy Baglio and Brian McDonald and another new candidate, Mara Franceschi, in the November 2 election for three available positions, with three-year terms, on the PPS Board.  Franceschi and McDonald were profiled in Town Topics earlier this month, and Baglio will be featured in next week’s issue.

“I was born in NYC and grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey,” wrote Liao. “I am a second-generation Asian American. I graduated from East Brunswick High School, majored in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, then obtained my J.D. from Harvard Law School.  Since then, I have worked as an intellectual property attorney in New York, Los Angeles, and now in Princeton as the sole U.S. patent counsel for a multinational pharmaceutical company.  I am a member of the bar of New Jersey, New York, California, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

“I moved to Princeton in the summer of 2020 for my current job. The main reason I chose to live in Princeton is because of the stellar reputation of Princeton Public Schools for providing excellent public education.

“I am 42 years old.  My wife Kelly and I have two children, a seventh-grader in Princeton Middle School and a first-grader in Littlebrook. As a product of central New Jersey public school education myself, I have an understanding of the student experience and the importance of public education to the students and to the community as a whole.

“My  No. 1 priority is to ensure that Princeton Public Schools remain open for in-person learning despite the ongoing pandemic by ensuring that adequate, up-to-date, science-based precautions are taken to reduce the risk of outbreaks in our schools and to minimize their effects should they occur. Only by continuing such precautions as long as is necessary can we ensure that traditional, in-person learning can continue with minimal future disruptions to our children’s educational, social, and mental health needs, as well as the child care needs of working parents, without endangering the health of our students and district staff.

“Furthermore, in any school district, resources are limited and public funds must be spent wisely based on a reasonable ordering of competing priorities. I believe it is important to distinguish higher-level from lower-level priorities and to secure reasonable value for dollars spent, without unnecessarily overburdening taxpayers. As a PPS parent, I am personally invested in ensuring that we can continue to maintain excellence in public education in a fiscally responsible and sustainable manner.

“While maintaining excellence in instructional quality in our schools is certainly important, student success also requires a supportive, nurturing school environment that is attuned to the social and mental health needs of our students, especially in light of the additional stresses that have arisen during the ongoing pandemic. The Board and school administration should proactively seek out and listen respectfully to student input in order to be more aware of the realities that students face at school, so as to be able to make better decisions that address students’ needs and concerns, broadly defined.

“Finally, Asian Americans are Americans, but often are not perceived as such. To help improve public perceptions of Asian Americans, and to serve as a role model for the Asian American community, I am running to demonstrate that Asian Americans can and should actively engage with the institutions of civil society to help improve the society we share for the benefit of all who live here. My goal in seeking to serve on the Board is to help build a more inclusive society for all through increased civic participation and civic inclusion. In addition, I believe that by bringing my perspective to the Board, I will be able to help the Board better take into account the perspectives of the substantial Asian American community in our schools and town and improve communication between the Board and the community it serves (in both directions).”

The four BOE candidates will participate in a virtual forum on Wednesday, October 6, at 7 p.m. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Princeton Area, the forum will be live-streamed via facebook.com/PrincetonTelevision. It will be rebroadcast, and a recording will be posted at VOTE11.org and lwvprinceton.org. Questions for the candidates can be emailed to lwvprinceton@gmail.com.

The voter registration deadline, by mail or online, is October 12 (the voter registration form must be postmarked by this date).  Voters in the upcoming election will not receive vote-by-mail ballots (which must be mailed in or placed in a special drop box) unless they have requested one.

Early in-person voting will take place October 23-31 at any one of Mercer County’s eight in-person early-voting locations, and, of course, registered voters can vote by mail by November 2 Election Day, or vote in person at their polling locations on Election Day.

Visit “Elections” on mercercounty.org to register, to apply for vote-by-mail ballots, or to find early voting locations or regular polling locations.