PPS BOE Candidate Chris Santarpio Has Made a Huge Impact on Schools
To the Editor:
I am writing to voice my strong support for Chris Santarpio, a candidate for a seat on the Board of Education.
My family and I have lived in Princeton for over 14 years, and both our boys have been going to Princeton’s wonderful public schools since their first day of kindergarten. We were lucky enough to be districted for Community Park, where they both had phenomenal experiences in the Dual Language Immersion program. In the many years I’ve lived here, though, I have never seen someone make such a huge impact on our schools in such a short period of time as Chris.
I met Chris, his husband Eric, and their son shortly after they moved to Princeton in 2020 through friends, but it didn’t take long before I started hearing about Chris from a lot of other people, because of the impression he was making on everyone at Community Park through his work with the PTO. My husband worked closely with him when Chris was running CP’s wonderful STEAM day, which was a huge success. Not too long after that, Chris became co-president of the PTO. For the last few years, CP parents have seen Chris work collaboratively and tirelessly on all different types of projects and solving all sorts of problems, ever since the moment he first set foot in a PTO meeting. He does all of this (often thankless!) work with amazing humor, warmth, kindness, compassion and boundless energy. No matter what he was faced with — and when it comes to kids and schools, it is basically never-ending— he just rolled his sleeves up, put a huge smile on his face, and got things done.
He’s been a godsend for CP, and now that my children have moved on to PMS and PHS, I can only hope they and their schools might have the great good fortune of having Chris and his focus, energy, and enthusiasm directed their way. I am just so grateful to have someone like Chris work so tirelessly for the good of our children, our schools and our community. If you don’t know Chris, please get to know him on his website (ChrisSantarpio.com) or better yet, in person. You will be as wowed by him as the rest of us who have been lucky enough to get to know him and his wonderful family. Please vote!