It’s Important to Keep Facilities in Shape so Schools Can Continue Their Educational Mission
To the Editor:
I am writing in support of the PPS referendum. The Board of Education has outlined specific plans for needed renovations to our public schools’ buildings. The only mechanism available to the Princeton Public Schools to perform needed facilities improvements is the one they are employing — a referendum that funds the improvements via a bond that stretches the costs across many future years, so that the cost in any one year is not too great.
Our public schools are doing an amazing job of educating a large — and growing! — number of kids. It’s important that we keep the facilities in decent shape so that the schools can continue to do well in their educational mission.
As our town grows, we need to take steps to make sure that our elementary schools can handle larger enrollment numbers. Creating more capacity at Littlebrook and Community Park is crucial, as new housing is being built in these two schools’ neighborhoods. It’s a valuable part of our town experience that our elementary schools are able to truly be neighborhood schools, and that many children are close enough to walk to their schools. Without the referendum, we may need to do redistributing which would disrupt this aspect of our schools; and we would find our schools overcrowded.
The planned improvements to the middle school will help the school to accommodate more students while still maintaining the house system that creates smaller communities within the big school community.
Finally, the planned improvements to the high school will create three more classrooms, helping the high school to accommodate its growing student body.
Please join me in voting “yes” on all three referendum questions.