You may have seen in the news, school districts across the state are struggling with budgets, especially as federal pandemic funding expires this year. It’s hard to make sense of it all. In the last Legislative Session, the state provided historic increases for education, but the state also set out historic new mandates. For example, Free Meals for All counts as education funding, but all those funds go to food service and replace what families were paying for school meals. 

In Princeton, we have always been fiscally conservative and stretched our funding as far as it will go with a focus on the classroom. You may not know that Princeton Schools are among the lowest funded in the state (bottom 10%). We receive $3,000 less per student than the state average. With rising costs, historic new state mandates, and declining enrollment (due to declining birth rates), we face budget challenges in making ends meet.

In addition, for years, we have been wrestling with how to address aging buildings and keep up as education and technology change rapidly. Now, our facilities conversations are running head-on into operating budget challenges. 

This is where we are asking for your help. On March 27, we are inviting active parents and community members to a meeting to begin to tackle long-term challenges for our schools. If you would like to be involved in this meeting about the future of our schools, please use this RSVP form. As we sort through the impacts of so many new laws (and costs to employers and schools), we will keep you informed about the impacts. Our schools are owned by the community, and we want you to be informed as owners. We will need many good thinkers to resolve the challenges we face from a business, human resources, and facilities perspective.

There is so much to be proud of in Princeton Public Schools — small class sizes, outstanding teachers and staff, and inspiring students who will lead our community in the future. We are confident that together we can chart a course forward with a vision that protects the heart of our community, our schools and learning opportunities.