By Donald Gilpin

Following last week’s contentious Board of Education (BOE) meeting, which drew hundreds to the Princeton Middle School on the evening of March 28 and hundreds more on Zoom, with most supporting the reinstatement of Princeton High School (PHS) Principal Frank Chmiel, this week has been relatively quiet in the district.

Kathie Foster, voted in by the BOE unanimously as interim PHS principal at the meeting, stepped into her new position last Thursday, and students and teachers are on spring break until April 10, but the conflict continues in the media and through legal channels.

Lawyers for Chmiel are appealing the district’s decision for nonrenewal of Chmiel’s contract and his placement on administrative leave and are proceeding through the required steps in that appeal process. In an email Monday, David Schroth wrote that he and Ben Montenegro, lawyers who are representing Chmiel, had requested from the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) superintendent a statement of reasons for Chmiel’s nonrenewal.

“We have not received the statement,” Schroth said. “The deadline for doing so is on or about April 17.”  Schroth went on to say that as the next step he anticipates requesting a Donaldson hearing where he, Montenegro, and Chmiel respond to the superintendent’s statement and make the case for Chmiel’s renewal. The Board then would vote to renew or not renew.

Schroth went on to reiterate that Chmiel had not engaged in any kind of wrongdoing. “My personal observation is that Princeton as a community and Princeton High School — students, parents, teachers, everyone — will lose greatly if they lose Frank Chmiel,” he said.

In accordance with state law, the BOE continues to refrain from releasing information from Chmiel’s personnel file since Chmiel has not waived his rights to privacy.

PPS Superintendent Carol Kelley addressed the gathering at the start of last week’s BOE meeting by asserting her support for freedom of expression and her commitment to make decisions in the best interest of students, staff, and the PPS community, but she went on to express her disappointment at receiving email messages that she described as personal attacks.

During the two hours of public comment at last week’s meeting, many students and parents spoke, almost all expressing their support for Chmiel and their opposition to his removal as principal. 

Meanwhile, the conflict continues in the media and through petitions. A student-initiated petition demanding Chmiel’s reinstatement had 3,029 signatures as of the morning of April 4, and a parent-initiated petition calling for Kelley’s resignation and Chmiel’s return had 2,100 signatures.

Town Topics’ Mailbox this week includes several letters addressing the issue, and last week the Executive Board of Princeton Parents for Black Children issued a statement of support for the superintendent and condemnation of a small group or parents who they claimed were mounting “a vicious and disrespectful misinformation campaign against Dr. Carol Kelley and other Black women leaders in the district.”

In a statement issued last week Schroth and Montenegro asserted, “We intend to fight for the renewal of Mr. Chmiel as principal of Princeton High School and pursue every avenue available to do so.”