To the Editor:

My family and I moved to Princeton in 2012. In 2019 our youngest graduated from Princeton High School. We were quite content, and happy to be living in Princeton. We figured we’d live in our house for a few more years, then maybe sell. But the recent happenings at Princeton Public Schools have us gravely concerned. Even though we are no longer inside the schools, we see and hear things from the outside that are cause for alarm.

Budgets created by the BOE that include monies for the superintendent to have her own PR firm and funds for unnecessary consultant after consultant, the increase to a $106M budget for the coming year, the politicized direction that education is taking, mismanagement of the elementary enrollment distribution which may result in redistricting, construction or more renovations, and of course, the removal of Principal Frank Chmiel from Princeton High School.

I watched the recent Donaldson hearing with horror, listening to allegations that seem meager at best, with a superintendent and Board of Education that appear to have crossed the line. How could the public, and more importantly Mr. Chmiel, be put through a five-hour hearing when nobody on the Board intended to consider the facts for even a brief discussion before voting down his opportunity to come back? How could the superintendent insist that Chmiel’s midterm leave was because he was an immediate threat to the safety of students, based on an incident that happened four months earlier? What kind of democratic system exists in this town, when thousands of parents and students voicing their support for Chmiel held absolutely no weight?

Chmiel and his lawyer were accused of creating a circus, but everyone saw the ringmasters sitting at the tables along the front! So many students, staff, parents, and other community members are left wondering what is happening to this town? And it is a really scary thought for one so close to selling our home. Perhaps we’d better get out now, before the word spreads? To the power vested in the citizens of this town, hold a BOE recall, recant the system, and get things righted before it’s too late.

Yan Feldman
Walker Drive