Princeton Public Schools (PPS) is a comprehensive community

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

that serves students in

pre-kindergarten Pre-kindergarten (also called Pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...

through

twelfth grade Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...

from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, in Mercer County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States.District Policy 9110 - Number of Members and Term of Office
Princeton Public Schools. Accessed September 3, 2020. "The Princeton Public Schools District is comprised of all the area within the municipal boundaries of the Municipality of Princeton and receives high school students from the Cranbury Public School District.... The Princeton Board of Education shall consist of ten members, nine of which are elected for three year terms and one from the Cranbury Board of Education." Students from Cranbury Township attend the district's high school as part of a

sending/receiving relationship A sending/receiving relationship is one in which a public school district sends some or all of its students to attend the schools of another district. This is often done to achieve costs savings in smaller districts or continues after districts hav ...

. The district administration building is at 25 Valley Road in Princeton. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 3,740 students and 341.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

student–teacher ratio Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...

of 11.0:1.District information for Princeton Public Schools

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

. Accessed February 15, 2022. The district is classified by the

New Jersey Department of Education The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered ...

as being in

District Factor Group {{refimprove, date=February 2013 Membership in a District Factor Group (DFG) is an indicator of the socioeconomic status of citizens in school districts of New Jersey. DFGs were first developed by the New Jersey Department of Education in 1975 for ...

"I", the second-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common

socioeconomic Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their l ...

characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J. Residents of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

's housing complexes for graduate students with families, Butler Apartments, Lawrence Apartments, and Stanworth Apartments, are zoned to the district.

History

The district's high school was constructed in 1927 and the middle school in 1965. The four elementary schools were completed from 1957 to 1962.

Awards, recognition, and rankings

Niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

ranked Princeton Public Schools as the 16th best school district in America and the best school district in New Jersey in its "2021 Best School Districts" rankings. Littlebrook School was one of nine public schools recognized in 2017 as

Blue Ribbon Schools The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

by the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

. In 2000-01, the district was recognized by the

with the Best Practices award for its Jefferson Debates Citizenship / Character Education program for students in Grades 6-8.

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the

) are:''2021-2022 Mercer County Charter and Public Schools Directory''
Mercer County, New Jersey. Accessed December 17, 2022. ;Elementary Schools *Community Park School with 332 students in grades K-5 **Dineen Gruchacz, Principal *Johnson Park School with 329 students in grades PreK-5 **Angela Siso Stentz, Principal *Littlebrook School with 342 students in grades K-5 **Luis Ramirez, Principal *Riverside School with 289 students in grades PreK-5 **Nancy Whalen, Principal ;Middle School *Princeton Middle School with 803 students in grades 6-8 **Jason Burr, Principal ;High School * Princeton High School with 1,555 students in grades 9-12 **Frank Chmiel, Principal

Former, renamed and converted schools

* Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children, educated the African-American students of Princeton from 1858 until desegregation in 1948. *Valley Road School educated children in Princeton Township from 1918 until 1980 when it was converted to offices. It was the first school constructed in the former Princeton Township by the regional district and became the district's first integrated elementary school in 1948. *John Witherspoon Middle School was the former name of Princeton Middle School from its construction in 1966 to 2020. The name was changed on June 15, 2020, with a vote of 8-1 from the Princeton Public Schools School Board following the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

, due to the school's

namesake A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another. History The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake", which originates in English Bible translations ...

being a slave owner. The school was renamed Princeton Middle School in 2021 after temporarily being named Princeton Unified Middle School for the 2020-2021 school year.

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are: *Dr. Carol Kelley, Superintendent *Matthew Bouldin, Business Administrator / Board Secretary

Board of education

The district's

board of education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

, comprised of nine members, sets policy and oversees the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held (since 2013) as part of the November general election. The board appoints a superintendent to oversee the district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district.Board members
Princeton Public Schools. Accessed September 3, 2020. A tenth represented is appointed by the Cranbury district to represent its interests on the Princeton Board of Education.

References

External links

Princeton Public Schools
*
School Data for the Princeton Public Schools

{{Authority control Schools in Princeton, New Jersey New Jersey District Factor Group I School districts in Mercer County, New Jersey