To the Editor:

Not in Our Town Princeton supports Superintendent Carol Kelley’s and the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education’s commitment to racial and educational equity and their development of programs to help eliminate opportunity gaps.

We strongly repudiate any racist remarks and attacks that have come in the wake of the change in leadership at the high school. Based on our collective experience of Dr. Kelley’s and the current BOE members’ leadership, we believe that Dr. Kelley and the Board of Education have made challenging decisions in good faith. As the BOE has stated, “Absent a public employee providing the Board with a written waiver of his or her privacy rights, the Board cannot say more.”

Meanwhile, an opportunity gap has plagued our community for too many years, going all the way back to the Princeton Plan of 1948. We must work to ensure that all students have the chance to engage in rigorous academic coursework and participate in extracurricular activities, and we must continue to work towards ending disproportionate discipline and referrals to special education for Black and brown students while seeking to support all students in preparing for lives of joy and purpose.

We applaud Superintendent Kelley’s and the BOE’s elevating equity and inclusion as defining values driving our students’ education. Equity and excellence support each other, and we hope that a continuing district-wide commitment to these values will build on gains already achieved, notably in the expanded availability of preschool and improvements in early literacy, as well as curricular “on ramps” to advanced science coursework in the high school, and district-wide improvements in benchmarking and data collection. The district has also implemented an increased overall focus on wellness and student engagement, as well as a long-term strategic plan developed with community input.

We ask that members of the Princeton community civilly raise their concerns and express their support for Dr. Kelley’s and BOE members’ leadership. We are grateful for events like this year’s ground-breaking State of the District report and planned upcoming conversations around elementary enrollment challenges. We also encourage the high school and district to restart efforts to make restorative justice practices a fundamental part of the high school’s culture. If we work together, we can enhance the school experience of all of our community’s children.

Linda Oppenheim
South Harrison Street

Joanne Parker
Leigh Avenue

Wilma Solomon
41 Tee-Ar Place

Joyce Trotman-Jordan
North Eastfield Avenue, Trenton

Board Members, Not in Our Town Princeton