On September 1, the Princeton Board of Education
passed a resolution to vote on a bond referendum worth
over $85 million intended to renovate school facilities.
The proposed renovations, if passed in full, would impact
Princeton Middle School, PHS, and each of the four
PPS elementary schools by modernizing aging district
buildings and expanding PPS’s capacity to accommodate
an increasing student population.

The projected spike in student population is a result of
the municipality of Princeton complying with New Jersey’s
affordable housing requirements via the construction of
multiple residential developments across the township,
the largest being those adjacent to the Princeton Shopping
Center. Moreover, on October 18, the state mandated
municipalities across New Jersey to meet specific housing
obligations: Princeton is calculated to currently need 60
affordable housing units, with an additional 276 in total
over the next decade. As such, the district expects an even
greater influx of students, which the BOE purports will
be beyond the current capacity of PPS.

“We, as a community, know that there’s been some
affordable housing mandates and that the ... housing that
Princeton was required to build resulted in about seven
new developments that were approved by the council
and are now underway and being built around town,”
said Beth Behrend, an executive BOE member.

If approved, the BOE’s proposal for a bond referendum
— where the local government asks for a vote from the
public to approve or reject a project — would allow the
government to borrow (via bonds) funding to complete
the project. Princeton Township residents will vote on
this referendum on January 28, 2025. To ensure that the
public has a greater degree of flexibility surrounding
the parts of the proposal they support, the BOE has
divided it into three parts, each of which will be voted
on independently.

“There’ll be three questions on the bond referendum,
and question one has to pass for question two to pass,
and questions one and two have to pass for question
three to pass as well,” said BOE member Susan Kanter.
“Since I’ve been in Princeton, that [hasn’t been] how
referendums have gone out, so it’ll be new to the public
to have that choice.”

The first proposal section, or “question,” would renew
Community Park Elementary facilities and install
small-scale ventilators at PHS, along with a broader
HVAC system. Although the improvements would cost
approximately $37 million, savings from the new HVAC
may total $150,000 to $200,000 annually.

“The renovation will encompass the building’s HVAC
system, including the chillers, the boilers, and the air
handling units,” according to the PPS website. “This work
will bring these outdated systems up to par with those at
the elementary and middle schools."

If the first question were to be approved,
Princeton residents would then vote on the
second question, which costs $38.3 million
and largely consists of changes to PMS
infrastructure. However, this question
would also remodel the Numina Art
Gallery and transform current district tech
offices to be used for student instruction.
The third question of the proposal, worth
nearly $13 million, is focused entirely
on constructing more classrooms and
enlarging existing facilities at Littlebrook
Elementary.

“The school district does not operate
in a vacuum, and we are aware of other
recent impacts to the taxpayer. After much
discussion, the Board and administration
believe that a three-question format is
the best approach to let voters decide
their additional level of investment in
the public schools,” said BOE president
Dafna Kendal.

Behrend and Kanter emphasized that the
state, rather than the municipality, would
pay for significant parts of the proposal;
approximately 15 percent of the question
one and two funds would come from
New Jersey. If all three questions were to
pass, owners of Princeton homes with an
average assessed value of $853,000 would
see an estimated increase of $532 yearly
for 27 years of financing.

BOE members disavowed any form
of advocacy from other members,
emphasizing the importance of voter input
in the January decision.

“Our job is just to put together the
solutions, and we’ve worked really hard on
it for many years, and had some really good
professionals advising us,” said Behrend.
“We’ve had a lot of forums with the public
… it’s been a really collaborative process.
We all learned a lot, and I think we all
feel pretty good about the solutions we’ve
come to, and now putting it out there for
the voters to consider.”

BOE passes resolution to hold $85 million referendum

On March 8, Principal Cecilia Birge presented the prospective new schedule for the 2024–2025 school year to the Student Achievement Committe, which will incorporate two days of 90-minute block periods, shorter Thursdays, and  minimize the rotation of letter days. To test the efficacy of this schedule, PHS will conduct a pilot run the week of June 3rd.
These schedule changes are part of a district initiative to maximize student learning through increased structure and stability in school instruction. 
The rotating letter day schedule that PHS currently follows is unaccommodating to unexpected calendar interruptions, the expansion of school programs and classes, and makes the scheduling of PHS staff meetings and substitute teacher arrangements difficult. Following the current schedule’s arrangements, P.E. classes and science classes must be placed back-to-back on lab days. This scheduling marriage between P.E. and science classes creates an inflexibility for the scheduling of “singleton” classes, or classes that only meet once a day. 
“Classes will become more even,” said Senior Class President Aidan Linkov ‘24. “Because of the constraint of the schedule [that is] locked up by science and P.E., when we have someone mentoring an ESL class or some other special needs, then that’s almost half of the day they’re scheduled, and there’s no flexibility.”
Class size restrictions and inonsistencies exacerbate the scheduling issue.
“When you couple that with constrained physical space where some classrooms only have 15 kids [and] other classrooms have 35, we’re talking about learning loss for students and making it difficult for teachers,” said PHS Principal Cecilia Birge.
One of the statistics that guided the administration’s decision to reform the schedule was the room utilization rate. According to Birge, at an optimal level, the room usage in a school should be at about 85 percent, but this year, it has reached upwards of 93 percent.
“After the pandemic, with additional enrollment, as well as the expansion of our current PHS programs, we really maxed out our facilities, especially with classroom space ... [t]he issue is that we need extra classrooms in case of a leak or  relocation,” Birge said.
In line with maximizing student learning, the addition of 90-minute blocks on B2 and B3 days aims to give teachers more time to further implement project-based learning. Additionally, 45 minutes of gym classes on B2 and B3 days are allotted to learning labs for freshmen, or a free period for upperclassmen and eligible sophomores in their second semester. 
“I want [underclassmen] to learn to earn that free ... so if they have too many absences or too many disciplinary issues, they’re going to lose that privilege,” said Birge. “We give kids a lot of freedom [at PHS], but if you don’t know how to manage that freedom, it hurts. So this schedule is intended to build up that self discipline.”
The PHS administration made  alterations to this schedule with the input of various teachers and staff using a survey. Additionally, the Bell Schedule Committee, established in 2017, revised the schedule before presentation to the Master Schedule Committee and PPS Board of Education. The new schedule’s removal of lab days means science teachers lose 28 minutes of instructional time per schedule cycle, so Birge maintained close communication with the science department through the process, which began in early December. Birge also met with student board liaisons and the PHS Student Council to discuss the changes.
“The [new schedule] went through multiple iterations and was a collaboration between everybody in the building,” said Birge. “This is important because our bell schedule plays a critical role in structuring our learning environment and has a big impact on teaching and learning, because it affects everything from the pacing of lessons to student and teacher well-being ... it drives the kind of school that we have.”

PHS to change bell schedule

“You’re not oppressed. You’re not an oppressor. Stop HiTOPS,” reads the neon sign of Princeton Public Schools parent Luke Alberts, protesting the organization in front of Princeton Middle School. The demonstrations began January 11 and took place for 30 minutes each morning for the following two weeks, where Alberts and several other parent protesters demanded revisions to the HiTOPS’s curriculum taught in PMS classrooms. 
PPS’s partnership with HiTOPS began through the state-mandated program Pathways to Racial Literacy. Under New Jersey’s diversity, equity, and inclusion mandate for schools, the “Identity Pathway,” a section of the curriculum making up three of the 25 total courses, focuses on helping students develop their identities and contains discussions about gender, gender expression, and other LGBTQ+ topics. Former PMS counselor, Thomas Foley, now HiTOPS’s Senior Education Manager, teaches the courses together with fellow PMS educators.
“What the lessons are trying to do is to try to help students understand…how others see the world maybe a bit differently,” said Kimberly Tew, PPS’s Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. “It’s about just understanding that we all come from different walks of life. All these different components; our religion, our ethnicity, our socioeconomic status … [and] our gender identity [all] shape how we walk in the world.”
However, several concerned community members see this differently. Junglien Chen, Luke Alberts, and two unidentified protesters participating in demonstrations outside of the school are a part of a larger group of 15 PPS parents organized under the name Parents for Responsible Education Policy. They have claimed that HiTOPS’s educational rhetoric goes beyond the state-mandated “Pathways’’ program and introduces ideas not suited for middle school students. Among these ideas is the “oppressor-oppressed” dynamic, which PREP alleges leads to unfairness and polarization in the classroom, in part through classing students into binary groups of privileged and oppressed. 
“The concern is that such a divisive approach may not only oversimplify complex social  dynamics but also sow discord among students. [The “oppressor-oppressed” dynamic] fosters a mindset where individuals labeled as ‘oppressed’ might feel justified in their wrongful actions, attributing them to external forces rather than internal choices,” stated the PREP website. “This approach … encourages an externalization of fault [and] detracts from a student’s development of character and accountability.”
The Princeton Board of Education discussed the wider community’s views on both HiTOPS’s curriculum and PREP protests during a meeting on January 30. The meeting provided a platform for PPS parent and member of the LGBTQ+ community Thomas Perc to raise concerns about HiTOPS protestors’ alleged intimidation of children. 
“What I said [at the board meeting] was my response to seeing two middle-aged men protesting during drop off and addressing children,” said Perc. “I heard from my daughter and other students that they were engaging with some of the students, and I just thought it was highly inappropriate, very misguided, and downright wrong.”
HiTOPS declined to speak to the Tower concerning these issues.
Several months earlier in September 2023, HiTOPS had also faced widespread criticism after Project Veritas, a national right-wing advocacy group, released a video alleging HiTOPS’s stance against parental consent and “opt-outs” for several of their lessons. HiTOPS responded by stating that the allegations were false and the result of a misrepresentation of an interview. Led by former superintendent Carol Kelley, PPS concurrently denounced Project Veritas’s accusations.
“Our goal is that all students have access to developmentally appropriate, positive, and medically-accurate sex education. We respect a parent’s right to opt their child out of a class or activity. We hope they won’t, but we respect their right to do so,” HiTOPS’s website emphasized in an official statement.
At the January 30 board meeting, Perc emphasized that the middle school was not the right setting to advocate for change. 
“This is a state mandatory curriculum. It’s not decided by Principal Burr. It’s not decided by sixth graders. It’s not decided by the Board of Education. It is decided by the governor and [the curriculum] comes down from the state,” Perc said.
At the recent board meeting, Dafna Kendal, the BOE chair, shared an anecdote of a concerned mother whose seventh-grade daughter expressed fear of the protesters’ presence and reportedly asked whether it was necessary to hide from them. Kendal went on to suggest that the protesters continue their protests in front of the municipal Valley Road building instead of the middle school.
“[PREP has] every right to protest on the sidewalk, that’s public property, [but] you know this is all about kids … if someone’s actions are detrimental to children, they should think about their actions,” said Kendal. “And that’s not to say they shouldn’t protest [but] maybe they need to examine how they are protesting and … why it is being reported that some kids are intimidated.”
However, anti-HiTOPS protesters object to accusations of intimidation and deny approaching or speaking to children. Protestor Luke Alberts claimed that the only intimidation suffered by students was a product of immaturity and adverse sensitivity.
“As for children claiming to be ‘intimidated’ or ‘scared,’ grow up. What’s so threatening about a pair of middle-aged doofuses with signs telling anyone who reads them that they’re neither privileged or oppressed?  Life isn’t always going to cater to your worldview, which, in the end, can be a wonderful thing,” Alberts said.
Alberts argued for the necessity of protesting in front of the school as a measure of publicity and legitimization.
“If I held up a sign in front of the admin building on Valley Road, do you really think we’d be having this conversation?” said Alberts. “I would just be dismissed as some crank. Ditto in front of the state house.”
At PHS, HiTOPS works with several clubs, including the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club, and offers both a racial literacy elective and the online Princeton Introduction to Racial Literacy course. Additionally, the state-mandated racial and sexual literacy requirements are met through the health, Peer Group, and Teen Pep programs.
“The high school doesn’t [work with HiTOPS] from a curriculum perspective, but some of our clubs, because of their involvement with HiTOPS and the middle school and the community, bring it into the building,” said Birge. “[HiTOPS is] an important organization that provides support for some of our students at PHS.”
In discussing sensitive topics, Birge advocated for engaging in open-minded conversations rather than silencing opposing views. She highlighted the importance of discussion to break away from binary perspectives.
“I think my interpretation of this whole event is to ask what’s the best way to educate our kids to make sure that they grow up to be critical thinkers and be brave enough to meet the world’s challenges,” said Birge.“It’s not that one person is always gonna be progressive and the other always conservative, it’s really a spectrum. …  [We want them to] understand … and figure out what’s the best way, most inclusive way, to bring everyone in the audience so that [we] can have a diversified society and promote peace.”

Weeks of protests continue discussion regarding HiTOPS curriculum

First dreaming about becoming a history teacher in the first grade, this fall marks Social Studies Teacher Elizabeth Taylor’s 13th year teaching at PHS. Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, Taylor debated between journalism and teaching history in high school, but the difficulty of attending a journalism college and the lack of a newspaper at her high school compelled her to choose education as a more secure option. 
After receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston University, Taylor taught United States and World History at Westford Academy in Massachusetts for nine years before she and her husband moved to South Jersey, where it was closer to family. Budget cuts caused by the 2008 Recession led to fewer available teaching positions, with the only one being PHS at the time. She took the offer to work at PHS knowing the challenge and reputation of the district.

“I chose education over journalism [because] I thought that I had a more secure job as a teacher. I shadowed a reporter at a local newspaper for a day during my senior year and remember them telling me that to get a job as a reporter, … you had to have worked on your high school newspaper. My school didn’t even have a newspaper, so I figured I didn’t really have a chance,” said Taylor. “I liked history; I was good at it, and I had several great history teachers. My mom was also a teacher, as was an aunt and a cousin, so I could easily picture myself as a teacher.”

Taylor strives to create a learning environment that is both intellectually engaging and inspires students to consider different perspectives. In order to keep students engaged, as well as make each year different for herself, Taylor adjusts her curriculum each year to incorporate current events and new resources that fit the needs of the new class. 

“Current events definitely help to make each year unique; this has especially been true over the last several years. Also, getting a new group of students, with their own interests and personalities; realizing that students in one period aren’t as engaged by a topic as students in an earlier period were, and moving on more quickly,” Taylor said.

In addition to social studies, Taylor also teaches Sociology Accelerated at PHS. Because of her limited knowledge on sociology and the time she had to allocate to her baby at home, Taylor was initially reluctant to adopt the new course. However, after five weeks of teaching the subject, Taylor fell in love with the creativity it allowed as well its applicability to students’ lives.

“Professionally, it is the best thing that has happened to me. … I love that it’s a rigorous course without the pressure of an AP exam,” Taylor said.

Having been regarded as a tough but fair teacher by previous and current students, Taylor finds that both of her courses teach students study skills and time management habits, which they can continue to apply in high school and throughout college.

“‘Tough but fair’ sounds about right. I hope to create an environment that is intellectually engaging and where students feel supported as they try new things and perspectives,” Taylor said.

Through her teaching, Taylor hopes to develop students’ desires to keep up with current events and become active members of society. Emma Liu ’26, a student in Taylor’s AP U.S. History class, appreciates her commitment to helping her students.

“She provides a lot of support for her students and really tries to help them succeed whether [that’s] in the classroom or for the AP Exam,” Liu said.

Outside of the classroom, Taylor strives to find a balance between work obligations and spending time with family.

“The demands on teachers are simply too great, and it definitely got much harder once I had kids,” said Taylor. “The best I have done is to ignore anything PHS-related during the summer, and to instead focus on the rest of my life as much as possible, … but during the school year, teaching takes up the majority of my time and attention.”

In her limited free time, Taylor enjoys gardening, dancing, and reading. Having been a dancer her whole life, she finds that her weekly tap dance classes give her the opportunity to unwind from the stresses of teaching.
“I take an adult tap class now that is probably the best hour of the week for me, because I’m just focusing on something that I need and not what my students need, or my kids need, or my husband needs,” Taylor said.
As her two children grow up, Taylor notes how she’s been able to relate much more to her students and their ambitious high school classes and extracurriculars as she learns to deal with her own children’s ambitions.
“I see high school students who are just trying to do it all. … They want to take five AP classes, be president of this club, etc. … and as a teacher, there’s just not enough hours in the day to do all of this, right?” Taylor said. “Now as a parent, I’m struggling to make those same types of decisions because it’s not like we’re pushing them into these things … and it’s really hard as a parent to say no when it’s something that they’re passionate about, because you want to encourage their passions, but you also don’t want them to burn out. … So, I definitely have more sympathy for my students as I watch my children navigate this themselves.”
For incoming and current APUSH students, Taylor hopes that they recognize that the class is much more than just learning history. She stresses how all of the challenges that come with taking APUSH are what makes a student’s journey in her class so special.

“A lot of it is about the journey that they go through over the course of the year. APUSH is a really hard class, but at the end of the year, students overwhelmingly tell me how worth it it was and how they learned so much more than just US history, and even more than just how to be a historian,” said Taylor. “I like seeing the journey from how they first approach the class, and what they think their goals are, what they think they’re going to get out of it, and then seeing at the end of the year, how much that has evolved.”

PHS Profile: Elizabeth Taylor

   This year, Princeton High School welcomed the first cohort of Princeton Middle School students who took part in the Community Park Elementary School’s Dual Language Immersion program. Having been recognized as a model program for Spanish Dual Language Immersion by the New Jersey Department of Education, CP’s full DLI program engages students in the Spanish culture and language from a young age with half of the core instruction taught in English and the other half taught in Spanish. While this program has gained much praise since its inception in 2015, it has also been met with some criticism, as it provokes the more general issue of overcrowding in the other elementary schools in the school district.
   With over 1,000 new housing units projected to be completed in Princeton by 2026 resulting in consistent growth in enrollment, expansion has always been a discussed topic in the community. In recent years, concerns have been raised by many parents, especially those whose children must be rerouted around the unfilled CP elementary school that is currently exclusively for students in the DLI program. 
   “DLI has become an issue [as] … it's not popular enough to consistently fill a whole school. If you don't want to do DLI, you have to go to another school. So we’re busing kids all over the place. kids that would walk to CP, we're busing them to Johnson Park,” Bouldin said.
   Sharing the same view as Bouldin is District Supervisor of World Languages Priscilla Russell, who explains that while CP is indeed experiencing a lack of students in the DLI program, the district’s other elementary schools are not overcrowded, but full. 
   “We need to be careful — [the other schools] are full, but they're not overcrowded,” said Russell. “[CP] does have some empty classrooms … but our goal had always been to create a dual language immersion school, which we were doing pretty well until the pandemic hit and changed just a whole lot of things.”
   CP Principal Dineen Gruchacz further describes the hindering factors brought by the pandemic, detailing how they have contributed to a lower-than-expected number of students in the DLI program.
   “[During the pandemic], lots of people shied away from anything different than a very basic education program,” said Gruchacz. “The recovery time to build back the numbers in the [classrooms] … is definitely something that needs to be addressed.”
   A DLI program at CP was first proposed in 2013 with the hopes of strengthening bilingual and multicultural learning in the district by taking advantage of Princeton’s extensive diversity. Rather than supplementing English classes with a single world language class, the DLI’s aim was to create a more holistic approach to language and culture, immersing students by teaching half of their subjects in Spanish instead of English. 
   DLI programs have become increasingly popular across the country in recent years due to the cognitive benefits associated with learning more than one language from a younger age and in response to the undervaluation of foreign languages in English-speaking countries. In fact, according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the universality of English is one of the main reasons why English is the most commonly taught language worldwide by a factor of 20, a discrepancy that DLI programs hope to address.
   “Princeton is not a huge town, but it's a town [made up] of really diverse community members and perspectives … [and] a large international community,” said Kimberley Tew, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. “We want to make sure that we're honoring that being bilingual and biliterate is a superpower … in an increasingly globalized world. [That] is the goal of the program, not just to develop [linguistic] skills, but to develop cultural competency.”
   Along with welcoming DLI program alums at PHS for the first time, the district has extended the DLI program past the elementary and middle school levels by introducing a new horticulture class tailored to teach basic biology principles in Spanish, taught by science and research teacher Mark Eastburn. Eastburn, who is fluent in both Spanish and English, reflects on the tremendous positive impacts that learning a new language can have on a child’s cognitive abilities and consequently believes that many more people should be signing up for the program.
   “I remember, many years ago, the evidence being overwhelmingly strong that dual language immersion programs are a way of supercharging childrens’ brains,” said Eastburn. “The evidence has only gotten better over time, and why we can’t get more people to sign up in a community which truly cares about education is baffling to me.”
   While the district does offer Spanish classes in the traditional route in all the other elementary schools, many parents believe that language education in the traditional method of language learning is not sufficient for students to gain fluency, leading them to choose DLI. Nicole Pezold, a current CP parent, believes that foreign language education is not prioritized in the traditional curriculum. 
   “I think it’s kind of an American approach to learning foreign languages to just not prioritize them at all. And I think that our schools in Princeton are trying to prioritize it way more than schools elsewhere in the nation, but we still are approaching it from an old perspective of language learning. I think immersion is the future, or one potential road for the future of language learning for people who really think that that's an important part of a rounded education,” Pezold said.
   Some parents who compare the immersive education of their children to their own experiences with the traditional method point out the effectiveness of DLI over the traditional method. Georgette Stern, who currently has three kids enrolled in the DLI program, shares her satisfaction with her kids’ improvement in the language. 
   “My husband and I both took Spanish throughout middle and high school, but you don't get the same level. I often speak to [my kids] in broken Spanish and … it’s great to see the level of comprehension,” said Stern. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to have your kids hear another language for half of their day, and also get core instruction in those languages.”
   In addition to offering enhanced opportunities for students who may not speak a second language at home to become bilingual, the DLI program intends to aid the large Spanish-speaking population in Princeton by helping them strengthen their bilingual skills and learn about their heritage more deeply.
   “One of the original goals of the program was to close the opportunity gap,” said Tew. “A lot of times when students move to the school district or move to America, they lose some of the foundational skills and pieces in their heritage languages … so we [are] targeting our [Spanish speaking] multilingual learners so that they can strengthen their knowledge base in both languages.”
   Olu Ogunyankin, a CP parent and a native of Guatemala, shared that the main reason her family chose to move to Princeton from South Brunswick was for the DLI program.
   “[Before starting at CP], even though we speak Spanish at home, [my son] would reply in English because he was in a Pre-K where they just spoke English. And [although] it’s been two months since the classes started in kindergarten, I see a huge difference in the amount of Spanish that he uses at home. He’s giving me sentences in Spanish, he’s replying in Spanish, and soon he’s gonna write in that language too,” Ogunyankin said.
The program is intended to help both native Spanish speakers and the already multicultural and multilingual families in Princeton who may not speak Spanish but want their children to continue learning in different languages.
   “We're targeting any family or child who believes in multiculturalism, biliteracy, and bilingualism. We have a lot of families who don't speak Spanish at home, but they might already be a trilingual or bilingual family, and they want their child to have that experience in school as well,” Tew said.
   PHS freshmen who took part in the first cohort of the DLI program highly recommend it for incoming elementary students at CP, finding that in addition to learning a new language from a younger age, the cultural immersion provided by the program has given them a different perspective of the world around them.
   “I feel like you're connected to a different culture. You're more immersed [and] you have a better ability to understand things around the world because you get to know people who were specifically part of that culture,” said Charles Baglio ’27, a member of the first DLI cohort. “[CP] did it really well … and it'’ an experience that you’ll take with you for the rest of your life.”
   For the parents who aren’t considering the DLI program, Milania Kapoor ’27, another freshman who participated in the DLI program, recommends that parents try the program for their children before they make a decision, expressing that the program will provide profound benefits.
   “I would say try it because you can always switch out of it … and ask to go to a different school,” said Kapoor. “It was an incredible experience for me. Not only are you learning a language but it's just a different experience … because you learn math in Spanish, you learn science in Spanish, … and you [become] so smart as a young kid.”
   With a growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States and an increasingly globalized world, learning a second language will become an important skill for future generations. How Princeton schools will balance an immersion program and potential overcrowding issues, however, may require compromise. 
   “It's a matter of everyone getting along and understanding each other better, and then building those bridges to actually move everyone forward as a society, which Princeton has the opportunity to do,” said Eastburn. “We really need to hammer that home to the public, because [an immersion program is] such a unique and important thing that we can offer as a district.”

Eight years on, PPS’s DLI program continues to bridge language gaps

With the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education election taking place on Tuesday, November 7, five candidates have entered the race to fill three open seats: Adam Bierman, Beth A. Behrend, Eleanor Hubbard,  Michele Tuck-Ponder, and Rene Obregon Jr. Current Board member Jean Durbin has decided not to run for reelection, while incumbents Behrend and Tuck-Ponder are both seeking a third term.

Adam Bierman
Native Princetonian and PHS alum, Adam Bierman ’78, is running for the Board of Education for the third time. After an unsuccessful run in the 2020 election, Bierman participated in the BoE’s strategic planning process, in which he hoped to address topics like overcrowding and understaffing in Princeton Public Schools.
“We just talk[ed] about nouns and pronouns and what we wanted a PHS senior to be,” said Bierman. “Discussing metaphors and words is interesting, but how does that translate to something substantial for our vision?”
Not only does Bierman hope to tackle the issues that matter, but as a social studies teacher who’s taught both abroad in Latin America and China, and locally in Mercer County, he believes that he has the experience needed to organize and implement programs proposed by the board.
“When you teach students… you have to learn how to deal with people on so many levels: emotional, educational, academic,” remarked Bierman. “We don’t agree on everything, but we find compromises and are able to move forward.”
If elected, Bierman stresses the importance of making sure that the district’s funding isn’t wasted in insignificant places, but is used where it matters most—education.
“I want to get rid of these distractions—I want to focus on education. Money should be driven back to the classroom … [because] the teachers, they are the front line,” said Bierman.

Beth A. Behrend
Having first joined the Board of Education in 2017 to tackle planning and budget challenges, Beth Behrend is running for re-election with the hope of ensuring that the district continues to offer a diverse set of programs and opportunities to all children, even amidst financial restraints.
“With a budget that's increasingly difficult [in an inflationary environment], we need to continue to be able to offer excellent curricular and extracurricular opportunities for all students,” said Behrend. “We have over half a million dollars in deficit every year if no prices go up … so we have to use the staff we have most effectively … and make sure there’s enough funding [while] teaching what is required and delivering a well-rounded education.”
After six years on the BoE, Behrend recognizes the importance of listening to students and parents, as well as honoring feedback and respecting different perspectives, but stresses the importance of continuing to move forward as stewards of the whole district.
“My focus is to meet the needs of the children as they come to us … to make sure that schools are more integrated [and] that we're not leaving anyone out … so that all kids have what they need to reach their potential” said Behrend. “There's so much to be done. It's a really exciting role and I just like to keep doing the work because it's very meaningful and it makes such an impact on the lives of so many kids.”

Rene Obregon Jr.
Lifelong New Jersey resident and CEO of the U.S. branch of the investment bank Numis Securities, Rene Obregon is one of the first-time candidates running for the Board of Education.
Having attended public school himself in Northern Jersey and with two sons currently enrolled at PHS, Obregon believes that good public school education is fundamental. 
“I don't think our school system is broken, I just think that there are some things that can be improved, [for example] communication to the community,” Obregon said. 
To do so, he hopes to use his background in collaboration and data analysis. Rather than using non-specific experience-based feedback, Obregon wants to introduce a data-based approach to evaluating school performance by, for instance, tracking school-wide percentages of passing grades or by zeroing in on metrics like chronic absenteeism.
“There's a lot of flowery language. But I think [that we] need hard key performance indicators so we can measure the progress of the superintendent and of the Board and what we're trying to do,” Obregon said. 
Obregon hopes to recreate trust between members of the PPS community and the School Board. 
“There's been a breakdown of trust, and it comes down to this communication and transparency. I think you can rebuild this trust with the students, the parents, and the taxpayers if you're just more transparent,” Obregon said. 

Michele Tuck-Ponder
Former Princeton Township mayor and long-time board member, Michele Tuck-Ponder, is the second candidate running for reelection this November. Tuck-Ponder first decided to run in 2017 to help provide more opportunities for disadvantaged students who may not progress to college and instead choose a different path.
“For every student, whether you want to go to an Ivy League school or become a chef, we should be thinking about how we can offer an education that is going to give the skills to be successful, no matter what it is they do,” said Tuck-Ponder. “I'm gonna stay on as long as I think I can make a difference in making sure that every student has an equal opportunity to succeed, and I don't think we're there yet.”
As a former public housing commissioner and affordable housing board member, Tuck-Ponder commends the many new developments in the district, but sees the consequent overcrowding issue in PPS elementary and middle schools as her main priority if she is elected to a third term.
“I know about the need for affordable housing in Princeton, but we have overcrowding in three of our elementary schools [and] in our middle school. We recognize that we can't put so much of a burden on our taxpayers that they can't afford to stay, so it's about being able to reach that balance and accommodate all students … while continu[ing] to aspire to a high quality education for all,” Tuck-Ponder said.

Eleanor Hubbard
Eleanor Hubbard, a former Princeton University assistant professor and author, is one of two new faces seeking election on the Board of Education. With the hope of bringing a teacher’s perspective to the board, Hubbard would focus on providing more academic oversight in terms of curriculum and instruction, as well as being a sensible voice for the Princeton community.
“I think we have board members who are really good at thinking about budgets and facilities … but I don't think that there is necessarily as much expertise in terms of thinking about curriculum and instruction, and those are issues that are very close to my heart,” said Hubbard. “I've taught both [at the] elementary school and college level, and I feel that that hasn't been the focus of the board for the past several years, and I think it's had some unfortunate consequences.”
In addition to revisiting the social studies and science curriculums in elementary schools, as well as solving the issue of rising enrollments and overcrowding, Hubbard hopes to rebuild trust between parents and board members.
“There’s been a lot of drama over the last couple of years. I've been talking to a lot of parents and a lot of people are angry and distrustful,” said Hubbard. “I think it's really important, if we're going to move forward in a positive way, for the district to focus on trust rebuilding work so that we can get to a place where we can work together and move forward.”

Meet the Candidates: 
2023 Princeton Public Schools Board of Education election

   September 5 not only marked the beginning of PHS’s 2023-2024 school year, but also the first day for a new principal with a familiar face. After a lengthy selection process that spanned close to the entire summer and included a search committee composed of over 20 stakeholders, PPS superintendent Carol Kelley recommended former assistant principal Cecilia Birge as the new PHS principal. This recommendation was unanimously approved by the Board of Education on August 31. 
   In an email that entailed her recommendation of Birge sent on August 30, Kelley stated that “During this selection process, Ms. Birge showcased her exceptional leadership qualities, along with her deep commitment to the success of all students, her passion for education, and her respect for the entire Princeton High School community.”
   After a whirlwind of new principals at PHS (four in the past three years) and the lingering controversy over the nonrenewal of former PHS principal Frank Chmiel, a survey was sent out to PHS stakeholders on July 7 asking them what the desired characteristics of a principal at the high school were.
   “Our goal was to begin the search process as soon as possible so that we would have an individual at least approved by the Board prior to the start of the new school year,” Kelley said. “Because of the reputation of our school district, we saw that even though the posting gave people just three weeks to apply for the position, there was an outpouring of candidates that were interested.”
Apart from the community survey, the Board also surveyed PHS faculty about their wants and needs for the new principal. Immediately, Birge stood out as a forerunner with her past experience and reputation at PHS.
“The staff that was involved on the interview committee really wanted an internal candidate. They said that the school was fragile and that they couldn’t really take someone who didn't understand the culture at the school ...  When you have the staff saying that this is what we need, the board is gonna listen to that," said Dafna Kendal, President of the Board of Education.
According to Kelley, the job opening received 25 applications during the three weeks it stayed open; two of these applications came from internal candidates, while the rest were external. The process consisted of three rounds of interviews. The first round was a paper screening to identify the candidates with the suitable qualifications and characteristics desired by community stakeholders, while the second round was a short virtual screening of four questions; this collectively narrowed the candidates down to five people, including the two internal candidates that skipped these first two rounds. The final round was an hour-long interview conducted by a stakeholder committee for each individual candidate, consisting of an open-ended question of the candidate’s outline on the first 100 days of school as PHS principal, as well as ten questions that focused on the candidate’s trustworthiness, communication, and responses to pertinent school affairs. Afterward, the committee had a discussion and rated each of the candidates according to their responses, culminating in the recommendation of Birge by Kelley to the board.
   Keeping with her philosophy of placing the well-being of students and teachers at the forefront, Birge, despite enjoying her assistant principal position, mentions one of her primary reasons for applying to be principal in the first place was to provide missing continuity.
   “When somebody from outside the community applies, the learning curve is really steep. And that means that will cause additional learning curves. Students and teachers - that was really the main reason for me to apply,” Birge said.
   After retiring from being a bond analyst on Wall Street, Birge began her time in education in 2012 and has seen and guided the growth of thousands with different job titles along the way. Starting as a substitute teacher for former PHS math teacher Valerie Rodriguez, she later secured a tenure track position at Dwight Morrow High School in North Jersey teaching math the next year, where she worked with various students with special needs. Wanting to make a greater impact, Birge obtained her certification in special education and later returned to PHS in 2015 as a special-ed math teacher.
   “I returned to PHS as a special-ed teacher because at Dwight Morrow, I had taught some really challenging students and in many ways, the teachers in that school were the only stabilizing force in those children’s lives … It sort of gave me a different perspective and a much higher level of appreciation for public education and how teachers can touch student’s lives,” Birge said.
   Now, after watching Birge’s exceptional performance as well as the board’s unanimous approval, Kelley believes that Birge’s experience, combined with her involvement in the PHS community, will bring long-awaited stability to PHS.
   “I feel that [Birge] is going to do a really marvelous job … She's not just an administrator, but she's been a teacher and parent at the high school,” said Kelley. “I think that her background in other industries and the experiences that she has had serving, as mayor [of Montgomery Township], on town councils, on town committees … creates an individual that's right for being principal of Princeton High School.”
   In addition to her extensive professional career in public service, Birge believes she can readily adapt to unfamiliar environments due to her experiences as an immigrant coming to the U.S. from China without knowing much English.
   “I still remember the days when I stood in the cafeteria at my college, trying to order food, and didn't know what to say to get the food. I think that my experience as an educator [and] my passion for our students is very much framed by my experiences as an immigrant and being unfamiliar with the system,” said Birge. “I think that my diverse professional background really has been great because school is a microcosm of society.”
   When asked about her methodology and guiding principles when making decisions for the future, Birge mirrored Kendal’s sentiment about putting teachers and students at the center.
   “As an administrator, my philosophy has always been that my job is to support the teachers, and if I support the teachers, then the teachers can place [the] students as their priority…you will never hear me blindly choosing some statistics just for the sake of statistics, the students and the teachers must be front and center in everything.”
   This school year, Birge does not hope to change much around the school and will instead try to focus on having a strong and communicative relationship with PHS stakeholders, in addition to the strategic plan that the PPS administrators and board members have decided upon.
   “I want to be out there to be visible in the community. I'm in the process of meeting with community groups, [such as] PTO and other groups to update our communication channel. The Tiger Tribune will probably return, in addition to Letters From the Principal,” Birge said.
   Furthermore, Birge has taken various actions to update an outdated system she sees as geared towards survival during a period of COVID-19 instead of a thriving school ecosystem. Several of these include requiring lanyards and revising punishments for plagiarism and unverified absences. 
   “All of these [new] policies and handbooks and whatnot … What we all realize is that after surviving the past three years post-pandemic, we need to be re-educated about what real school feels like,” Birge said. ”
   Birge fondly remembers her time as an assistant principal mainly because of the relationships she was able to form with students, as well as jokingly mentioning her comfortable old office.
   “In many ways, the assistant principal’s job is the best job in a school in the sense that each day is different. You just don't know what to expect each day and same thing with principals. But the assistant principals focus is on the students. They're there to support the students and the teachers, but with direct contact with the students. So the principal is a step removed,” said Birge.
   On September 26, the Board approved the transfer of former PHS Mathematics Teacher Lauren Freedman to the Assistant Principal position who has worked in various capacities with the current PHS administrators and feels ready for challenge.
   “I also believe that my transition into this new role will go well, as I have been working closely with the administration team over the years on various committees … I have had the opportunity to work with Ms. Birge and had the honor to co-teach Pre-Calculus with her,” said Freedman. “I am most excited to have the opportunity to directly engage with the entire PHS community. In this role, I will get to work directly with staff members from all departments, the entire student body, Valley Road, and other community members.”
Freedman also is deeply connected as a Peer Group teacher, field hockey coach, student class advisor, and Corner House advisor, among many other roles. Similarly to Birge, Freedman believes she can utilize her wealth of experiences to impact students in her new position.  
“I have taken on a variety of leadership roles with the PHS administrative teams, and I have planned and coordinated both district-wide and building level initiatives. I feel that the AP position gives me an opportunity to provide a wider range of support to our students.”
   In the future, despite her new position being a “step removed,” Birge hopes to continue to work more closely with students and watch their growth.
   “Be the good student leaders, the role models that you are … make an appointment with me or walk with me,” Birge said. “Learning can be painful and difficult, but that's why graduation is so beautiful because at the end of the year, we reflect that there isn't a single child who doesn't grow fast and significantly.”


Students see a familiar face in a new role: Cecilia Birge

   On May 17 during Tiger Time, students and staff along with the Princeton Education Foundation celebrated the inauguration of the newly renovated courtyard next to the Numina Gallery, which was completed this spring after two years of construction.
   The official opening of the courtyard was attended by many PHS students, staff, PPS board members, and the Mayor of Princeton, Mark Freda. During the event, attendees were able to hear individuals give  speeches and stories about the renovating process and the idea’s origin.
   For the past two years, the courtyard has undergone multiple stages of renovation. The first improvements were pitched in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 by Language Arts teacher Bryan Hoffman, who wanted to help the PHS community after the pandemic. By decorating the space with flowers and benches, Hoffman aimed to create a more intimate resting space for students to enjoy.
   “I was looking at just how upsetting the pandemic was. None of us knew what to expect with in-person or hybrid learning,” said Hoffman. “So when [we] put out [our] yearly bid for grants, I thought, well, what if we make a space for beauty? 2,000 dollars, and there’s a courtyard. ”
   After seeing the popularity and enthusiasm students expressed with the first courtyard decorations, Hoffman decided to collaborate with another group of teachers who were advocating for a similar, albeit more elaborate, idea. Together, they pitched the idea to the Board of Education, who approved the plan “to give students the opportunity to step away, reflect on their studies and situations, reduce their stress levels, and enhance their mind-body wellness,” according to the PEF. Supported by the PEF, the mini-grant was enlarged, allowing the team to expand its original ideas and draw up more significant modifications.
   “It [was] something that we were not used to because teachers are always working on a budget, and I think it definitely opened [things] up. [It] allowed us to be more creative,”  Hoffman said. 
   Students played a vital role in the development and execution of the courtyard. After being contacted by Hoffman, Joseph Gargione, an industrial arts teacher at PHS, invited students from his Advanced Architecture class to participate in the design process of the courtyard. Using SketchUp, a 3D modeling computer program, students who volunteered would design models of the courtyard and then provide them to landscape architect Rich Sneidiker, who had worked on similar projects at other schools. 
   “My only worry was how seriously they wanted to take it, because I didn’t even know how serious this was going to be,” said Gargione. “I presented my Advanced Architecture class about what was going to happen here and who was interested.”
   In the end, three of Gargione’s students, Jake Richter, Tom Lips, and Aiden Castillo, submitted designs and began meeting with the team during breaks.
   “The three of us went through a multitude of different drawings that would all be given to the Landscape Architect, Rich Sneidiker. He worked incredibly hard to include our ideas into his plans while also pushing us to come up with more ideas,” said Jake Richter ‘23.
      In the center-left of the courtyard, the team constructed a wooden platform intended for a variety of uses. Hoffman hopes that students and staff will be willing to use it to its full effect.
   “So the platform is for meditation, yoga, and performance, and then there's plenty of space around [it]. … I'm hoping there'll be more public performances,” Hoffman said.
   Students and teachers were amazed at how the renovations turned out when the construction of the courtyard was completed. The team stresses the importance of creating a space that focuses on the well-being of the students and continues with the original goal of the renovations.
   “The main goal of this courtyard was to mesh both Science and Art into one central meeting space. The intent was a place of peace and meditation, which was the focal point for the focus of Mr. Hoffman, who did an incredible job leading the entire project,” said Richter. “My personal goals behind the project were to create a colorful space that deviated from the bland colors that flow throughout the school currently. I wanted to prioritize mental health, and I believe there is no better way to do this than create personality through color.”
  Going forward, the team hopes that this project will serve as an example for similar projects at PHS in the future. Additionally, Gargione hopes that this courtyard has set a strong example as to how capable students can be to help bigger projects, as well as encouraging them.
   “I think that this is now proof that these kinds of projects are possible. I think [a student] already started doing drawings for a wall. Now I’m hearing that there might be another project. I think after students see more, we'll take it more seriously,” Gargione said.
   For now though, the team hopes that the courtyard will be a place where students can escape the academic stress throughout the school day.
   “I couldn't be happier. I hope that teachers don't bring their classes out to teach because we want to have a space that's intended for student wellness and to feel like you're not in school. And so far, I think teachers have done what I did, [like taking] students out to read,” Hoffman said.


Completion of PHS Courtyard joins a larger effort to improve the school environment

After a 13-year career, Gary Harris, a janitor at PHS, will retire on June 30. He will leave a lasting impact on the students and teachers at PHS because of his efforts to go the extra mile for students, as well as to ensure that PHS recycles properly.
   Growing up in Newark, Harris began working part-time supervising young kids at a recreation center at the age of 16. As he got older, he took on a number of other jobs, such as working at a luggage company and as a crossing guard. The job which prepared him most for his time at PHS, though, was his job at a paper recycling company, where he learned the intricacies of recycling for over ten years.
   Harris prides himself in his job, beginning his shift at 2:30 p.m., a full hour before it is supposed to start, and ending it after 10:00 p.m., hours after his colleagues have finished. Part of the reason why he stays so long is that he meticulously sorts through the trash bags of other janitors to take out the recycling, a process that other janitors are unwilling to do. In fact, his boss sometimes has to make him leave the school so that he can go home. However, with his past work experience, he feels obligated to do this, despite the amount of time investment required.
   “I do the little things that other people won’t take the time to do… I take time out to do stuff like that. To me, it’s not a big deal. My boss will get mad because I stand there when it’s ten o’clock at night, and I’ll be in the main office or the library with a stack of about 1000 books. I stood in till the a.m. last year when [students] had to take the PSAT… I was tearing them out, pulling staples out, and separating the paper,” Harris said. 
   Throughout Harris’s time at PHS, one major problem he’s noticed is that the students and faculty are not recycling. To resolve this issue, he proposes a simple, yet clever solution to encourage recycling. 
   “We should really force people to recycle,” said Harris. “I can’t make everyone do this… but it would help. It would make it much easier for [the janitors] to recycle [properly]. But I can understand the simple fact that if you had a big garbage [bin] or a small blue one with a little hole, you’d naturally throw your garbage away in the big one. The main aim is [to have] the ones where you push the thing [that] swings back. Those would be perfect.”
   Leaving behind a legacy of love and kindness, Harris will miss the close relationships he has made during his rounds each night. Following his retirement, he hopes to be able to spend much more quality time with his grandkids and close family. He also wants to watch more sports, and a variety of movies including dramas, mysteries, and sci-fi. 
   “I’m not going to miss the job so much, but I am going to miss the people that I met here. I know almost every principal and every custodian here. I’m going to miss a lot of students because I remember when I first met them, and it makes me feel good to see [them]... going to high school… then college,” Harris said.
   Harris’s dedication and motivation to help others has left an impact on the PHS community and how it deals with different types of waste. Although many students may not know about Harris, his efforts to promote recycling have caused an increase in awareness throughout the school. 
   “PHS is relatively cleaner than most other schools,” said Sawyer Quallen ’24. “[There] is an abundance of recycling bins throughout the school and inside classrooms, making it more convenient to recycle. With limited resources on our planet and community, we should make a stronger effort to reuse and recycle. Our actions dictate our future, and how we choose to use our resources greatly affects it,” Quallen said.
   For the past 13 years, Harris has made close friends in the Princeton High School community, not only with staff, but also with students who he has met over the years. He also shows that it is the little things in life that make a difference in the world, such as recycling properly. Harris’s time working at PHS sets an example for hard work and being kind to others, even when it may require more time and effort.
   “I’m just one of the many custodians that work [at PHS],” said Harris. “[But] I try to do it the best I can.”


PHS Profile: Gary Harris pushes the importance of recycling

  After a 54-year career, beginning in January of 1969, Jeffery Lucker, a social studies teacher at PHS, will retire on February 1, 2023. His time at the school contributing to educational progress will undoubtedly leave behind a significant impact on students and teachers alike. 
   With a teacher as experienced as Lucker, it is easy to assume that teaching was always his passion. While studying at the University of Wisconsin, though, he had many differing interests. However, just as Lucker graduated, the start of the Vietnam War brought with it a military service draft for anybody who was not in a select profession. Given that college students were draft exempt, Lucker had two options: either continue school in pursuit of his Master’s Degree, or go to Vietnam. In the end, he went with the first option, and due to a strong affinity for history and teaching, he decided that education was what he wanted to pursue. 
   “Sometimes I say, in trying to decide whether to be a cellist or a doctor, I became a teacher. I actually thought of both and then somehow it became teaching,” Lucker said. 
   After finishing his education and a short stint as a student teacher at a school in Wisconsin, Lucker moved to Princeton, New Jersey, after he was offered a job at PHS. While he had his doubts about the move, he quickly settled into the new position. 
 “I wanted to stay in Wisconsin, but there was nothing available,” said Lucker. “One day, I got an opening in New Jersey, and it was for mid-year… I felt like I was doing what I was meant to do.”
   As a teacher, Lucker frequently draws upon his own experiences as a child in the New York public school system. He believes that the privilege of having good teachers in his early years allowed him to blossom into the accomplished educator he is now, and he hopes to be a similar role model for his students.
   “When I was in high school, we had really good teachers, so they were good role models,” said Lucker. “One of [my] teachers was teaching in the aftermath of the Second World War. They [had] gone through the cost of college on the G.I. Bill, and they had gone to City College, which was called the poor man's Harvard at the time.”
   Interactions with students is another factor that compelled Lucker to keep teaching, and he believes that keeping his students engaged in his class is extremely important. Lucker’s classes often consist mostly of student-driven discussions in which students are prompted to form their own thoughts and opinions about the content that they are learning. In addition, he accomplishes this goal by keeping his classes up to date with current events. Lucker hopes that they take away both an increased knowledge of history and a love for the subject as well 
   “I think that if you're a teacher, it's one of the best ways to learn something. [In] addition to enjoying the interaction with students, I enjoy preparing for class because I read and I try to keep my classes up to date [by looking] at new articles and new materials,” Lucker said.
   Lucker’s emphasis on promoting student engagement and also preparing interesting lessons does not go unnoticed by his students. Kush Sharad ’24, a student in Lucker’s AP World History and Cultures class, especially appreciates how much variety there is in his lessons from day to day. 
“I like how he teaches in a lot of different ways, using videos, texts, and articles, not just one type like some of my other teachers,” Sharad said.
   Lucker’s classes often consist mostly of student driven discussions in which students are prompted to form their own thoughts and opinions about the content that they are learning. In keeping his students engaged, Lucker hopes that they take away both an increased knowledge of History and a love for the subject as well. 
   “I think it's important for everybody to understand history…because history is our memory and you need memory in order to survive,” said Lucker. “It's a way of finding out who you are, and where you came from, both as a country [and] as a people. It's a way of understanding the world better and appreciating [it]. Our present lives [are] products of the past.”
   Along with his lesson planning, Lucker’s vibrant personality is another thing which many students like about him. He constantly demonstrates his passion for his subject, making it hard for many not to enjoy his class. 
   “Mr. Lucker is a really interesting person which makes him stand out from just being a good teacher… I feel that there are definitely some great takeaways from this class both from him and the subject,” said Edward Cao ’24, another student in one of Lucker’s AP World History and Cultures classes.
   Following his retirement, Lucker hopes to pursue his other interests such as running and going to the gym. He is also planning on continuing to learn more about history, auditing courses at Rutgers, and taking classes at the Evergreen Forum in Princeton. Possibly what he looks forward to the most though are his plans to travel to Europe, specifically Malta.
   Lucker’s dedication to teaching has inspired countless students. As he moves on, one thing will be certain: his legacy will always remain at PHS.


Matias da Costa's Work