By Donald Gilpin

Carol Kelley

Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Carol Kelley’s resignation, effective September 1, 2024, and her request for a paid leave of absence from October 27, 2023 through August 31, 2024, were approved by the PPS Board of Education (BOE) at a special board meeting on Monday, October 30.

In the third item on the agenda of the 25-minute meeting, Rebecca Gold, PPS interim assistant superintendent of human resources, public information and community relations, was appointed interim superintendent until November 30, 2023.

Kelley had announced her resignation on October 27 in an email to PPS staff, stating that “for personal and professional reasons, I must take some time to reset and recenter myself.” Her email was followed later that day by an email from the BOE to the PPS community announcing Kelley’s leave of absence and resignation and thanking her for her service to the district.

Monday night’s BOE vote was 7-1 on the questions of Kelley’s resignation and leave of absence, with Michele Tuck-Ponder in opposition in both cases. The vote on Gold’s appointment was 7-0 with Tuck-Ponder abstaining.

“The most important responsibility of a BOE is to manage, support, and protect its chief executive,” Tuck-Ponder said in a prepared statement that she read before voting against accepting Kelley’s resignation.  “We are in this position today because of how this responsibility was managed (mis-managed) by this Board from the outset.”

She continued, “We will be held accountable by the public for our actions and decisions and that is appropriate. I can only hope that we hold ourselves accountable and that going forward, we resist the urge to act in haste and without
consideration of the long-term consequences of our actions.”

Following the adjournment of the meeting, Tuck-Ponder declined to elaborate on her statement. In response to a question as to whether she thought the Board had learned any lessons that would be helpful as they embark on the search for and working with a new superintendent, she replied, “I hope so.”

Kelley faced a number of controversies in her tenure of less than two and a half years as PPS superintendent since July 2021 when she succeeded Barry Galasso, who had served as interim superintendent for a year after taking over from Superintendent Steve Cochrane.

In addition to student protests, a tumultuous public hearing, and widespread dissatisfaction expressed over Kelley’s dismissal of Princeton High School Principal Frank Chmiel last spring, there has been conflict over the hiring of a controversial

math consultant, alarm among elementary school parents over a new afterschool care provider, and repeated calls for Kelley’s resignation.

Before coming to PPS, Kelley was superintendent of the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 outside Chicago. Before that she served as Branchburg (NJ) Township superintendent of schools and before that in various administrative positions in Flemington, Bridgewater, and Franklin Township.

About 25 people attended Monday night’s meeting in person, though hundreds more followed on livestream or watched the meeting video on YouTube. Five speakers from the audience went to the microphone to provide public commentary.  Many questions were asked. The Board did not respond.

John Street resident Jim Wolf claimed that Kelley did not resign willingly but must have been fired. “Why was she fired?” he asked, and he called on the Board to report on what program cuts will take place to pay the approximately $200,000 of her remaining salary through August 2024.

The second speaker, Paula Strum of Prospect Avenue, was also critical of the extensive paid leave for the superintendent, calling on the Board to take responsibility for overlooking “red flags” in the hiring and subsequent managing of Kelley and for “taking money away from our overcrowded schools.”

The BOE did finally receive some commendation in the comments of Jennifer Suttmeier from Cranbury, who applauded their progress in improving transparency, in sending out summaries of proceedings, and in increasing accessibility to meetings. She also called on the BOE to actively involve the community, to avoid closed-door decisions, to continue to hold focus groups, to conduct well-constructed surveys, and to realize that the next superintendent “needs to align with the values of our community.”

Gold, who is expected to serve as interim superintendent until a long-term interim superintendent is appointed, has served as the administrator in charge when Kelley has been out of the district, according to BOE President Dafna Kendal.

Gold joined the PPS in December 2021 and had previously been director of personnel and administrative services and director of educational technology in the Lawrence Township Public Schools from 1986 to 2015. She has also served as interim director of human resources for the Hamilton Township Public Schools.