A former Hamilton Township elementary school principal has been appointed to serve as the interim principal at the Riverside School.
The Princeton Public Schools Board of Education appointed Nancy Whalen to fill in as the interim principal for the 2022-23 school year at a board meeting on July 26.
Whalen, who will be paid $600 per day, was selected by a search committee that included parents, Riverside School staff members and administrators, said Superintendent of Schools Carol Kelley.
Whalen was the principal at the Sayen Elementary School in Hamilton Township from 2005 to 2019. She was a guidance counselor for nine years in the Hamilton Township School District before becoming the principal at the Sayen Elementary School.
Whalen will fill in as principal while school district officials seek a permanent principal. She is filling the vacancy created by the reassignment of former Riverside School Principal Ebony Lattimer, who was named an assistant principal at the Princeton Middle School.
Lattimer was the latest in a series of principals at the Riverside School before her transfer to the Princeton Middle School. The principal’s post at the elementary school was held by the late Bill Cirullo for 30 years before his death in 2016.
There have been two acting principals and three principals – including Lattimer – since 2016. Lattimer was appointed principal in August 2021.
Kelley acknowledged the turnover in the principal’s office at the Riverside School when she announced the decision to transfer Lattimer to the Princeton Middle School.
School district officials plan to take time to assess the Riverside School’s needs, Kelley said. The goal is to find a principal who will provide stability and leadership for the entire Riverside School’s student, staff and parent community, she said.