By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Riverside Elementary School will not be named for former Principal William Cirullo, despite efforts by the late administrator’s colleagues to have him recognized in that way.
Instead, the school board is poised to approve a policy that would forbid naming a school after a person, “including current or former employees or officers of the board,” the document read in part. The policy came up for a first reading at the board meeting Tuesday, and is on track to be approved early next year.
Cirullo, who grew up in Princeton, was a fixture at Riverside for 30 years, part of an overall career in the district that began in 1970. He died Feb. 15, 2016, at 67.
A group of former colleagues known as the “Bill Committee” urged the district to rename the school in his honor, a step that the school board, ultimately, declined to take.
“In my personal opinion, it would have to be a very high bar, high standard, to name a building after a person other than (John) Witherspoon, which is already its name,” school board President Patrick Sullivan said Tuesday, in reference to the founding father and former Princeton University president whose name adorns the local middle school. “So it seems better just to keep it the way it is.”
Charles Cirullo, a brother of Bill Cirullo, said Wednesday that he was disappointed by the decision.
“I’d like to see my brother’s name on the school, he deserves it,” he said by phone.
The district has talked of honoring Bill Cirullo at Riverside in some other way.
