Come Tuesday, Judith Wilson will officially launch her effort to meet just about every student, parent and teacher in Princeton.
By: Rachel Silverman
Though she’ll be the new kid on the block come Tuesday, Judith Wilson is determined to meet just about every student, parent and teacher in town.
"I want to extend an open invitation to all to meet me sometime, somewhere before June," Ms. Wilson said in an interview Thursday.
So despite what promises to be a frantic first few weeks on the job, you can expect to see Princeton Regional School District’s new superintendent out and about on a regular basis.
"My favorite thing to do is hang out in the hallways," she gushed excitedly.
Although she enjoys schmoozing with peers, Ms. Wilson actually has a professional claim in the matter.
"My immediate goals as superintendent are observation and listening," she said, emphasizing how important it is to be well-versed on the issues at hand.
To that end, Ms. Wilson seems to be progressing just fine. Though she won’t assume the superintendent position until Feb. 1, the Barrington resident already has met with numerous community leaders and visited 30 elementary school classrooms.
"I’ve done introductions, touring and sat in on committee meetings for the 2005-2006 budget," she added.
And you can expect that Ms. Wilson will undertake such systematic research not just on her own behalf, but for the school district as well.
On the achievement-gap issue, for example, Ms. Wilson plans to "tap the best thinking in the nation … use the university as a wonderful resource in our back yard … form discussion groups … put the best readings in teachers’ hands … hear the voices of student experiences," she said.
"We need to analyze layers of work on narrowing the achievement gap," Ms. Wilson added.
After conducting that extensive research, the next step to solving ongoing community issues is acknowledging responsibility for them, she said.
Ms. Wilson sees school testing, for example, as a measure of school success rather than child failure.
"Labeling particular schools as ‘failing schools’ is not what’s important," she said, referring to Princeton High School’s current "early warning" designation under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. "It means that children have been failed, they are not served well enough yet."
But accountability is not sufficient on its own, Ms. Wilson continued.
"Communication is at the heart of effectiveness," she said.
She cites the youth-violence crisis as an issue where such collaborative work is in order.
"To look at it collectively is the only way it makes sense to me," she said. "Community groups and school groups need to communicate openly. It avoids duplication of effort. It makes sure our funds are expended in the best way."
Throughout her career in education, this problem-solving approach has proved highly successful. Her time in the Woodbury School District, where she served as superintendent of schools for the past decade, illustrates a few of Ms. Wilson’s accomplishments.
"Her years in Woodbury, a very diverse community, have been extraordinarily successful," Princeton Regional Board of Education President Anne Burns wrote in a statement on the district’s Web site. "She has tripled district grant awards, completed $35 million in capital projects, designed and implemented pre-kindergarten, pre-kindergarten inclusion and full-day kindergarten programs. She is committed to narrowing achievement gaps and has coordinated the Woodbury Community Minority Task Force."
In Woodbury, the schools were recognized as being Star Schools, a Governor’s School of Excellence and as a NASA Explorer School.
Recently, Ms. Wilson, a Haddonfield native, was named New Jersey Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators.
But Ms. Wilson is much too modest to boast of such accomplishments.
Instead, she remains focused on the job at hand her new superintendent position.
"I’m very, very eager," she said. "My lists are long, I’m ready to dig into the work."

