By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Cochrane and the Board of Education reached a “handshake agreement” on terms of a new four-and-1/2-year contract to keep him leading the district, the head of the school board said Thursday.
Financial details were not released about a deal that will need to be approved by the Mercer County superintendent, board President Patrick Sullivan said by phone. When that approval happens, he said his hope would be for the agreement to be on the agenda, in September, for the full board to vote on.
Sullivan said he and board members Betsy Baglio and Connie Witter were part of a negotiating team that had met face-to-face two or three times with Cochrane, whose original four-and-1/2-year deal ends next summer.
Sullivan said “we are very supportive of Steve and we think he’s heading in the right direction.”
Cochrane, a Princeton and Harvard-trained educator, has been leading the public school system since January 2014. Perhaps his signature initiative in that time has been focusing on student wellness, amid concerns that high school students are feeling overworked and stressed out.
He has written of a “sea change” taking place in Princeton of what student success means, of not “strictly” getting into the best colleges but of “living a life of joy and purpose.”
“While the extension of my contract is still in process, I am inspired by the prospect of continuing the transformative work currently underway in the Princeton Public Schools,” Cochrane said Thursday by email. “I look forward to collaborating with our outstanding staff, the Board of Education, and the community as a whole to maintain a focus on equitable, engaging, and innovative learning. We are engaged in shifting the paradigm in education.”
“We’re very happy with what Steve’s done,” Sullivan said. “He’s shown great leadership and started a process of some real positive changes that affect our children, which is the thing that the board is focused on most.”
In ensuring leadership continuity at the top of the district, the board will able to work with Cochrane as they map out the future of the public schools. It comes with the district poised to have a facilities bond referendum in March, change the schedule at Princeton High School to have a later start time, possibly acquire the Westminster Choir College campus, among other things.
“The next few years will be critical in fostering racial literacy, problem-based learning, a new schedule at the high school, and new facilities to benefit the district as a whole,” Cochrane said. “Schools should be places of joy and learning. I continue to experience both in my role as superintendent, and I hope to inspire both for our staff and students.”
This will have been the second labor negotiations the board had worked out, all in fairly quick order, so far this year. The board and the Princeton Regional Education Association, the teachers union, reached a two-year-contract extension, with both sides approving the deal in June.
“We hope to have more good news on the labor front in the weeks and months ahead,” Sullivan said.
