Princeton, Montgomery and West Windsor-Plainsboro systems face big challenges.
By: David Campbell, Jill Matthews, Kara Fitzpatrick
With all three Packet area school systems coping with continued growth in student enrollment, increasing costs, state spending limits and demands by parents for ever-higher quality, 2005 will be no cakewalk. Here’s a rundown of what happened this year and what’s ahead for the Princeton, Montgomery and West Windsor-Plainsboro school systems.
Princeton Regional
As Princeton Regional Schools bids farewell to 2004 and turns its face to 2005, it has witnessed huge change with districtwide construction and the hiring of a new superintendent, and looks forward to renewed focus on its mission, which is providing Princeton’s youngsters with a superior public education.
Princeton Regional Board of Education President Anne Burns said a No. 1 priority for 2005 will be to welcome Judith A. Wilson as the district’s new superintendent, and acclimatize her to the district.
The school board unanimously approved Ms. Wilson’s appointment in October following an extensive nationwide search during the past year after former Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn announced she would be leaving, which she did this summer. Currently the superintendent of Woodbury Public School District in Gloucester County, Ms. Wilson is expected to begin working in Princeton Feb. 1.
The incoming superintendent has said her focus will include long-term professional development and narrowing the achievement gap for minority students. She also will be working closely with the board in hammering out a 2005-2006 school budget that meets academic goals within the constraints of a new state law that puts a 2.5-percent annual cap on spending.
Ms. Burns said the district in 2005 will look to put the finishing touches to the first five school construction projects under its $81.3 million districtwide facilities upgrade and expansion, and will be "keeping close tabs" on the expansion of Princeton High School that is now beginning. "People will begin to see the high school coming out of the ground there, and that will be a big priority," the board president continued.
Ms. Burns also said that in the coming year, with the bulk of the district rebuild finished or nearing completion, the board will refocus with Ms. Wilson on curriculum and learning. "This superintendent will take a hard look at education to make sure our kids get the best one they possibly can."
This renewed focus on education will no doubt be aided by the historic inking this month of a new teacher’s contract between the board and teachers’ union Princeton Regional Education Association about six months before the current one expires.
David Campbell
Montgomery
News from the school system this year was filled with planning and budget matters for the district’s new high school, scheduled to open in September.
The more than 400,000-square-foot complex, which comes with a price tag of $57 million, will herald enhanced technology and educational opportunity, said Superintendent Stuart Schnur.
The school, located off Route 601, will include a new synthetic-turf Cougar Field complex, traditional classrooms, an aquatic center, a greenhouse, a television studio and a darkroom, among other things. Once the new high school opens, the middle school will be split into an upper and lower middle school, with grades seven and eight occupying the current high school and grades five and six occupying the current middle school. Throughout the year, the Board of Education faced the issue of how best to accommodate the new building with the desired technology and keep it at a cost that all residents will be able to live with.
Dr. Schnur is recommending that the school system provide each high school student and teacher with a laptop computer and said he is looking forward to seeing that technology in place during the new year.
"I don’t know if it will happen or not, but I’m certainly looking forward to that," said the superintendent. Other plans for equipping the high school with computers are both less ambitious and less costly.
The issue has fueled debate among some parents, who question the proposal’s usefulness in the learning process. In January, the Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the computer scheme for the new high school.
"The opening of the new high school presents both opportunities and challenges," said board member David Demme.
"While the opening of the new high school will allow us to enrich our program, it also results in increased fixed costs," he said. "The budget review and approval process this spring is likely to require some difficult choices."
Mr. Demme said he was "looking forward to the public input, and hopefully a large turnout, at the various budget meetings over the coming months."
In other school happenings, an unprecedented number of candidates eight competed for the three available board seats during the April election.
An 18-percent turnout in April resulted in the election of incumbent and board President Linda Romano and newcomers Andrea Bradley and Wei-ching Lin. In the same election, voters approved a $58.5 million budget.
In July, William Hyncik was selected in a 5-2 decision to fill the empty board seat that was vacated by Douglas Kling. Mr. Hyncik lost a bid for re-election during the April election.
In 2004, district high school students attained the second highest SAT scores in the state and the highest average math SAT score in the country for public schools with at least 100 participants, said Ms. Romano.
Ms. Romano also cited numerous academic and technological accomplishments that highlighted the year, including Village Elementary School’s WNBC Weatherbug station implementation and College Board recognition of the high school’s AP art history program.
Looking back over the past calendar year, Dr. Schnur said he has been pleased with the capability of administrators to maintain "the high quality of the district under the restrictions that are being placed upon us by the state."
Ms. Romano said that in 2005, she would like to expand E-alert the district’s e-mail notification system. She said she also is looking forward to the completion and dedication of the new high school.
Dr. Schnur said that in the coming year he will place "a continued focus on curriculum issues."
He said he hopes to see additional technology infused into the curriculum, as well as "more diverse course offerings" in arts and nonacademic areas. "We do real well in the academic areas, it’s the others we need to work on."
Ms. Romano said that in 2005, she also would like to "increase technology use throughout the district" as well as implement new physical education programs.
Kara Fitzpatrick
West Windsor-Plainsboro
A review of the middle school program of studies, along with a long-term strategic plan for the district, contract negotiations and the state cap legislation were the biggest challenges for the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in 2004, all of which will continue in 2005.
After a litany of complaints from critics of the middle school program of studies, the Board of Education in October set up a committee to review the strengths and weaknesses of the program. The committee will present its findings in January.
The controversial program of studies combines language arts and reading into one class, lengthens academic periods, reduces study hall time and offers a new support class called Literacy in the Content Area, where teachers of all disciplines integrate literacy into their lessons. Over the summer, the board decided to tweak the program for eighth-graders but left it mostly intact for sixth-and seventh-graders. The schedule now blends literacy back into regular classes five days a week for eighth-graders, among other things.
In late January or early February, the board also will hear a presentation on the long-term vision, or strategic plan, for the district. A diverse group of about 35 people has been working on the five- to 10-year plan.
After two years of negotiations the Board of Education approved in November a collective bargaining agreement with the more than 300 members of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Association. The association is composed of secretaries, instructional assistants, custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers and bus mechanics.
The contract settlement includes a retroactive one-year agreement for 2003-2004 that provides for a 4-percent salary increase, as well as a three-year agreement, beginning July 1, 2004, that provides for a 4.25-percent salary increase in the first year with a re-opener clause for salary and health insurance negotiations for the second and third years of the contract.
But with one set of contract negotiations settled, the board’s biggest contract negotiation with the teacher’s union is just beginning. Just this month, the board began its initial negotiations with the union, whose contract ends on June 30.
State legislation passed this year that lowers school budget caps to 2.5 percent and limits the amount of money schools can keep in their surplus will have a negative effect on all school districts, including West Windsor-Plainsboro, said Superintendent Robert Loretan.
The legislation will eventually force the district to cut programs that have made it a high-achieving district, he said, calling the legislation the "biggest bad news for the year," though he said the effects in West Windsor-Plainsboro may not be felt for a few years.
But the legislation already has had an impact on the district when $1.3 million of its surplus, which was earmarked for capital improvements at some of the schools, was taken away, said Board President Hemant Marathe. While the district had intended to put certain items in its regular budget for next year, it may need to explore the idea of holding a referendum or placing a second question on the ballot.
Because of facility needs that require attention, particularly for the aging High School South and Dutch Neck School, the district may look to either increase its capital spending in the budget, put a second question on the ballot or hold a referendum in the near future. Last year, the district allocated only about $1.2 million for its capital improvement budget, which could be chewed up almost entirely by a major project at one school.
A 2-year-old proposal by a booster club to pay for installation of lights at the High School North football field is expected to finally be addressed in January, when the proposal will be on the board’s agenda for discussion. The Northern Knights Booster Club wants to install the lights at the field free of charge, but several board members expressed concern over a number of items in the proposal, including the inequity the lights would cause between the two high schools in the district, and the possibility that the district might incur costs by accepting the proposal.
In April, a judge overturned a $1.5 million jury verdict awarded just two weeks earlier to former student Jennifer Besler, who, along with her parents Carol and Philip, filed a lawsuit in 1998 against the school district and several school officials. Ms. Besler claimed former girls’ basketball coach Daniel Hussong’s request that she drop 10 pounds in two weeks spurred her to take diet pills and develop an eating disorder that persists today, and that he cursed and berated players when she was a player in the 1990s. The Beslers accused the district and several officials of not coming to Ms. Besler’s aid.
Jill Matthews

