Narrow vote rejects plan backed by some parents for all K-5 schools.
By: David M. Campbell
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional Board of Education narrowly approved the administration’s recommendation on elementary school grade configuration this week, reversing the district’s long-range commitment to a kindergarten-to-fifth-grade configuration.
In a 5-4 vote Tuesday, the board endorsed Superintendent John Fitzsimons’ recommendation to keep the district’s current grade K-3 and grade 4-5 model by establishing a second 4-5 school at Village School.
Opponents of the superintendent’s recommendation expressed regret following the vote, with one resident in tears as she addressed the board, and challenged the board and administration to develop a transition plan that will make K-3/4-5 work.
The change is expected to be implemented in September 2002, when the Town Center Elementary School is planned to open as a K-3 school.
The board has struggled with the decision since Dr. Fitzsimons asked the board in June to revisit the district’s decision to go K-5, which many in the community believed to have been finalized by the $59.7 million building referendum approved by voters in 1996.
In the week preceding the vote, tensions rose and the community and board was polarized.
Board Vice President Stephen Smith on Tuesday night called the decision the most difficult he has had to make while on the board.
Board member Barbara Friis called the last week "emotionally exhausting."
In prepared speeches read prior to the vote Tuesday night, which was made before a gathering of almost 100 district residents, board members expressed a range of mixed feelings, from optimism to frustration, but the overall mood was one of resignation.
Many on the board, conceding that either choice presented difficulties, said that in the end they were left to vote their conscience and personal judgment. Board member Stan Katz called the decision "a toss-up."
The board also said whichever configuration it chose, the district, board and community would make it work.
"Both are meritorious. They both are valid in their own way," said board President Cheryl Larrier-Jemmott. "This is also a beginning. We’re moving forward after we bring closure to this issue."
The vote split the board roughly in half, with Ms Larrier-Jemmott, Linda Geevers, Dee Dee Dodson and Stan Katz voting against the superintendent’s recommendation and supporting K-5; and Barbara Friis, Stephen Smith, Matti Prima, Elliott Korsen and Henry Wieck supporting K-3/4-5.?
EDITOR’S NOTE: For the complete story, see the Friday issue of The Princeton Packet.?