To the Editor:

I want to thank every School Board candidate for the upcoming election. Princeton is blessed with an impressive pool of well-qualified residents stepping up for public service.

I am giving one of my three School Board votes to Adam Bierman — a candidate pledged to maintaining Princeton public education excellence who has the courage, honesty, and credentials in equal measures to do so.

Over 36 years of living in Princeton, every School Board candidate has pledged that achieving education excellence is their No. 1 goal.

Adam Bierman is no exception; in addition, he is the candidate resolutely bringing attention to the wider community issue of: what is the cost effectiveness of School Board votes so far in improving educational excellence?

One such contentious decision highlighted by Adam is the superintendent-led School Board vote in 2018 to allow Cranbury — a town 8 miles away — to send their students to Princeton High School until 2030. 

Superintendents leave Princeton as they all do and did for professional and personal reasons. They are not held accountable for the long-term fiscal consequences for residents who have made Princeton their hometown. What will happen to the Princeton property tax rate that is directly tied to the public school budget — approved by the School Board in April at $95.6 million for the 2020-21 school year for 3,758 students?

Adam Bierman has brought to light other similar School Board decisions — such as the recent vote to purchase Apple MacBooks at $3 million for all the students (2020 Princeton median household income is $229,201), while reducing staff by 3 percent and raising property taxes by the maximum allowed under law.

With Princeton taxes ever climbing, it has been wrenching to see longtime friends and neighbors driven away by unaffordability despite long rooted attachments to the town; more distressingly, our own grown children gave up moving back to Princeton with our grandchildren because the property taxes are simply too prohibitive for young families.

Princeton remains a small town of 30,000 residents, the outsized reputation of Princeton University notwithstanding. Adam’s well-articulated platform of ensuring education excellence along with fiscal accountability and judicious prioritizing within budgetary means reaffirms that it takes a village to bring up a child.

I believe that Adam Bierman, when elected to the School Board, has the courage, ability, and commitment that I lack to be accountable for making fiscally judicious long-term sustainable decisions to support continued education excellence in Princeton.

Adam Bierman impressed me initially as the host of his Breezing with Adam program on Princeton Community TV, interviewing many notable Princeton residents and showcasing local talents.  Born and brought up in Princeton, Adam is a teacher by profession, following the public service foot steps of his father who had served on the Princeton School Board for several terms, with a mother who had taught at Princeton public schools for over 35 years.

Please join me in voting for Adam Bierman among your three choices of School Board member.

Selina Man
Patton Avenue