By Donald Gilpin

Carol Kelley has resigned, effective August 31, 2024, after serving fewer than two and a half years as superintendent of the Princeton Public Schools (PPS). She will be taking a paid leave of absence effective immediately.

In a Friday morning, October 27 email to staff she announced that “for personal and professional reasons, I must take some time to reset and recenter myself.”

Kelley’s email was followed later Friday morning by an email from the PPS Board of Education (BOE) announcing Kelley’s leave of absence and resignation, thanking her for her service, and announcing a special meeting of the BOE on Monday, October 30 at 7 p.m. to act on Kelley’s departure and presumably begin the process of hiring an interim superintendent.

Kelley took over as superintendent in July 2021, succeeding Barry Galasso, who had served as interim superintendent for a year after taking the reins from Superintendent Steve Cochrane.

Kelley weathered a number of controversies during her tenure as superintendent, most notably in response to the dismissal of Princeton High School Principal Frank Chmiel last spring and then this fall in problems arising with the elementary schools’ afterschool care provider, which resulted in the termination of the provider’s contract.

Before coming to PPS, Kelley served as superintendent of the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 outside Chicago.