Following the resignation of Carol Kelley on October 30 of last year, the Board of Education began the process of finding a new, permanent superintendent for Princeton Public Schools. With interim superintendent Dr. Kathie Foster’s contract set to expire on July 1, 2025, the Board aims to make a decision before then.

To facilitate the search process, the district hired School Leadership LLC, a search consultant firm based in New York. As lead consultants on the search, Dr. Marty Brooks and Rina Beder are responsible for advertising the job posting and recruiting candidates who fit the profile and specifications sought by the district. These candidates would then be reviewed and interviewed by all ten members of the new Board formed after the election on November 5 for a final decision.

Before recruiting potential candidates and during the information gathering stage of the search process, Brooks and Beder sought input from Princeton community members regarding the ideal qualities of a new superintendent. From September 30 to October 10, they conducted a total of 18 in-person sessions, including one with PHS students, and six virtual forums with groups like the Princeton Parents for Black Children and the Parents Special Ed Union Leadership, and a group of three district unions representing faculty and staff. The consultants also made use of an online survey in which 500 community members responded.

“We were really impressed with the openness and honesty of everybody that [we] met with. There’s a deep commitment to the district’s schools, and that came through loud and clear,” said Brooks.

Through the forums, they saw recurring patterns in the needs of the community. Brooks and Beder then compiled these needs and feedback for the new superintendent into six key specifications. The qualifications, as per the School Leadership LLC’s Specification Development Report, were categorized as follows: an experienced teacher with a strong commitment to the needs of students, a compassionate promoter of Princeton Public’s Schools’ mission, a collaborator who creates strong relationships with the community, an effective communicator who readily shares and exchanges ideas, a skilled financial manager who can maximize the board’s resources, and a visionary who plans to lead the community to a higher level of excellence. These qualities were assembled into a draft of the profile for the job sent to the Board of Education and approved on October 16. The 2024 Princeton Public Schools Superintendent job description reflected the community’s input, and the LLC started recruiting on October 17.

In particular, the last specification in the board’s final job profile describing a “leader who is excited about becoming a member of the Princeton community” was designed to promote greater stability, given the high turnover the district has seen recently in superintendent and principal positions.

“There has been a lot of change, so we’re looking for somebody who is committed not only to staying for some period of time but also embedding him or herself in the community — somebody who really loves the place, wants to sink his or her roots there, and wants to commit … for the work that needs to be done as well,” said Brooks.

The Board will conduct a rolling search, so as the LLC pre-interviews candidates, it will continually send specific individuals who meet the superintendent profile to the Board to interview for the position. Ideally, the Board hopes to have a candidate by early 2025 since Foster’s contract requires PPS to give her a 90 day notice that a new superintendent will fill her position.

“[Dr. Foster’s contract requirements] would take [the Board] back to March [to find a superintendent]. And in [NJ], we have an additional step: the executive county superintendent has to approve a superintendent’s contract. So the ideal timing [to hire someone] would be that the board announces in January or February or even early March that there is a successful candidate,” said Betsy Baglio, vice president of the Board of Education and chair of the superintendent search committee.

However, the Board cannot announce a successful candidate until after the school board election on November 5, so actual voting on a superintendent cannot happen until 2025. Despite these challenges, the July 1 deadline will not deter the Board from selecting the best possible candidate for Princeton Public Schools.

“We are going to make sure that whoever we choose meets the criteria we’re looking for. So if we don’t have someone by July 1, as we get closer to that date, we’ll have contingencies in place. There has to be a superintendent on July 1 ... but if not, there will be someone in that role,” said Dafna Kendal, president of the Board of the Education.