TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 • 14
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Childhood Center at YWCA Princeton on Saturday, September 26, at 11 a.m. on our Facebook page (@ywcaprinceton). The Continued from Preceding Page event will feature remarks from Mayor Liz Lempert, James Burke of The Burke Foundation, Councilwoman Leticia Fraga, and First Lady of New Jersey Tammy Murphy will be our keynote speaker. I hope the community will tune in and join us. TAY WALKER To the Editor: Executive Director, YWCA Princeton We are supporting Michele Tuck-Ponder for a second term on the Princeton BOE. Michele has the leadership experience that we can trust to help us make the critical decisions ahead on equity, facilities, budget, safety and educational excellence. Michele will continue to address systemic and institutional racism in our district, particularly in the areas of discipline, To the Editor: We are writing to enthusiastically endorse Beth Behrend special education classifications, hiring, and academic achievefor re-election to the Princeton School Board, where she has ment. She will continue to look at every decision and every expenditure through the lens of equity for every student — served as Board president for the past two years. We have LGBTQ students, immigrants, those with learning disabilities, known Beth for many years through her work with our chilstudents of every color and ethnicity, and regardless of their dren’s schools, initially as leader of the Riverside PTO. She economic status. As chair of the Equity Committee, she will is a woman of exceptional intelligence, integrity, and energy continue to lead the coordinated response to inequity in our – and equally important, warmth. In our decades of living in Princeton, Beth and her family are amongst the kindest and schools. most thoughtful people we have ever met. Princeton’s schools are crowded and will become even more Under Beth’s leadership of the BOE, Princeton Public so over the next few years. As a former mayor experienced with municipal budgets and buildings, she will work collabora- Schools have accomplished a great deal of positive change. We tively with the community to ensure that we have the facilities have improved our school facilities, stabilized district finances that we need for our children without unduly burdening our while addressing overdue building maintenance to achieve taxpayers — she has demonstrated through her voting record even greater cost savings, welcomed talented new hires at all levels, initiated free pre-K for scores of students, promoted on the BOE that fiscal responsibility is key. important equity initiatives and racial literacy, provided all stuAbove all, Michele will continue to work tirelessly to help dents equal access to new technology, and supported a rapid ALL of our current and future students get the skills they need shift to remote learning, but there is more work to be done. for success in the 21st century — collaboration, creativity, In a time of significant change and uncertainty, Beth has communications, technology, and cultural competence while proven to be a leader we can count on to help us navigate learning in a safe environment. COVID-19 has presented unique challenges, and we trust Michele to help us make the successfully and ensure we deliver an effective education to right investments to help our children, teachers, and staff all children that reflects the values of our community. Please join us this fall in re-electing Beth Behrend to the Princeton thrive whether the learning is virtual or in-person. Board of Education. Please vote for Michele Tuck-Ponder for Princeton BOE. You JAMES BASH can learn more about Michele at MTP4BOE.com. EVA MARTIN IONA AND MAURICE HARDING ANNE CASWELL-KLEIN Fisher Avenue GRADY CASWELL-KLEIN KAREN JEZIERNY South Harrison Street Mt. Lucas Road ROBIN BIRKEL Meetinghouse Court
Tuck-Ponder Has Leadership Experience To Help Make Critical Decisions Ahead
Under Behrend’s Leadership of BOE, PPS Have Accomplished Positive Change
Burke Foundation Early Childhood Center At YWCA Princeton Opens Its Doors
To the Editor: Last week, we opened the doors to The Burke Foundation Early Childhood Center at YWCA Princeton. With temperature screenings upon arrival, staggered pick up and drop off to avoid crowding, and masks worn by staff and many of the children we serve, it wasn’t the opening we imagined, but it’s the one our community needed. Many schools are transitioning to online learning — and for older children, it’s the most practical approach — but 2-year-olds can’t be taken care of via Zoom. In addition, social interaction is crucial to social-emotional learning, a pillar of early childhood development that our curriculum prioritizes. For this reason, we’re introducing an after care program for children between the ages of 3-6, who may be learning remotely during the day, to get a few hours of social interaction and physical activity. During the construction of The Burke Foundation Early Childhood Center at YWCA Princeton, we opened our summer childcare program at a licensed childcare facility just a mile away from our building. Our program ran from July through August, and our staff and the families we serve adapted quickly to our new safety protocols. This allowed us to employ staff who were temporarily laid off at the beginning of the pandemic, and we gained valuable experience that has prepared us to open our childcare on a larger scale. The health and safety of our staff and the families we serve is our highest priority, and there were no cases of COVID-19. The safe reopening of our summer childcare confirmed to my staff and I that we could safely reopen in the fall; however, a testimonial we received from a parent at the end of the summer made us all realize that we need to reopen. This parent witnessed his daughter’s attitude toward learning transform in the two months she was in our summer childcare program. Not only was she counting and speaking better, she couldn’t wait to tell her family about what she’d learned at the end of each day. At our core we strive to empower and inspire the children in our program, and to prepare them to thrive in kindergarten, and beyond. That’s why we do this work, and why we’ve opened for the fall. We will live-stream the ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of The Burke Foundation Early FOR PRINCETON BOARD OF EDUCATION
FOR PRINCETON BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR OFEDUCATION EDUCATION FORPRINCETON PRINCETON BOARD BOARD OF
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PCDO and MC Democratic Committee To Host Virtual Meeting on Sept. 24
To the Editor: On behalf of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization (PCDO) and the Mercer County Democratic Committee, I would like to extend an invitation to all voters to join us for a virtual meeting this Thursday, September 24 at 7 p.m., to hear from our special guest, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, as well as Congressman Tom Malinowski, and our own representative Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. The meeting can be accessed at princetondems.org. With the untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the political landscape has changed yet again. Please join us to learn the latest news on what is happening nationally and in New Jersey as we near Election Day, November 3, 2020. The meeting is free and open to the public. JO BUTLER President, PCDO Hibben Road
Expressing Gratitude for Virtual BOE Candidates’ Forum Hosted by WJNA
To the Editor: I’m certain the more than 70 others who attended the virtual Board of Education Candidates’ Forum share my gratitude to Leighton Newlin and the Witherspoon-Jackson Neighborhood Association (WJNA) for hosting this timely and instructive event last Saturday, September 19. After listening to each candidate’s platform and their solutions to longtime and emergent local educational issues, attendees acquired information and insight to assist them in casting an informed vote in the upcoming seminal Board of Education election for a new direction for Princeton’s public schools. Capping off the excellent meeting was a presentation by Anton (Tony) Nelessen, who has been teaching urban design and professional practice, first at Harvard and currently at Rutgers, for the past 39 years. Nelessen spoke on affordable housing, zoning, sustainability, and smart growth with particular reference to the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood. LINDA SIPPRELLE Victoria Mews
Urging Residents to Vote In New BOE Members Who Will Act For Community
To the Editor: It is time for a change. For years, I’ve watched with dismay as members of Princeton’s Board of Education (BOE), with a few notable exceptions, have consistently failed to examine each question put before them with a critical eye. The role of a Board member is to draw upon their experience, expertise, and analytical skills to deliberate with their fellow Board members to make informed decisions. It is not to serve as a rubber stamp. Sadly, the leadership of our BOE discourages dissent among Board members in exchange for conformity to the wishes of both the administration and a small, but vocal, cadre political insiders who have for years set the BOE’s agenda. As part of their effort to stifle public discourse, last year the BOE leadership spent taxpayer funds on legal fees to silence fellow Board members who shared information about topics
of significant interest to the community. Similarly, the BOE leadership established a policy to prevent Board members from communicating directly with the superintendent or the general public. Instead, all communications with the superintendent must now be filtered through the BOE’s president. Such measures are chilling to those who believe in the crucial role that public debate has in a democracy. The results speak for themselves. The BOE has recently made a series of tone-deaf decisions that underscore its inability to function as an effective deliberative body. This spring the BOE moved forward with an ill-conceived and ill-timed plan to spend more than half a million dollars on two outdoor toilets and a small concession stand, despite concerns about both the cost and the need for the project. This decision was reached during height of the spring surge of the pandemic, with limited public input, and over objections of several Board members, when many Princetonians feared for their health, were struggling with reduced incomes, or worried about possible job losses. A few weeks later, the BOE moved forward with a costly plan to equip our students with MacBook Airs and Chromebooks. During the meeting, several members acknowledged they hadn’t been given adequate time to review the administration’s proposals before voting. Indeed, one Board member admitted they didn’t know much about the teaching methodologies or technology solutions proposed but would nonetheless follow the advice of the administration’s “experts” and voted in favor of the plan. Princeton deserves better. Unfortunately, given the current Board leadership discourages debate and dissent, an end to this dysfunctional behavior is unlikely unless a new team of leaders take charge. To change the culture of Princeton’s Board of Education, we need to elect new Board members who will ask hard questions, take a critical look at each proposal, and hold the administration accountable. It is for this reason that I urge my fellow residents to vote in new School Board members who will act on behalf of the community and elect a new BOE leadership team. Please join me in electing the slate of Paul Johnson, Karen Lemon, and William Hare for the Princeton Board of Education. MARC MONSEAU Moore Street
Books C.K.Williams Series Features Alameddine
The 2020-21 C.K. Williams Reading Series will be launched by novelist Rabih Alameddine, who will read from his work at 6 p.m. on September 30 via Zoom Webinar. The reading will be followed by a conversation with Alameddine and Hamza Hashem, a senior in Princeton’s Program in Creative Writing. The series is named after the late Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet C.K. Williams, who also served on Princeton’s faculty for 20 years. This virtual event, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts, is free and open to the public. Alameddine is the author of five novels and a collection of short stories, The Perv, which in 2019 won the
Dos Passos Prize. His sixth novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope, will be published by Grove in Spring/ Summer 2021. His pieces have appeared in Zoetrope, The Evening Standard, and Al-Hayat, among others. Born in Amman, Jordan, to Lebanese parents, Alameddine grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon. He was educated in England and the U.S., and he has an engineering degree from UCLA and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco. He has lectured at numerous universities including M.I.T and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2002. He divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut.
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