Message From the Superintendent

August 29, 2018

 

Greetings students, staff, and families,

 

Starting a new school year is like opening an exciting new book! It is filled with endless possibilities.  It presents an opportunity to engage with new people, new ideas, new adventures.  And, best of all, the book we open is one we write together!

 

This year, the story of the Princeton Public Schools might well be entitled, Expanding Our Capacity.  With a major facilities referendum planned for November, we will be exploring the expansion of our physical capacity with needed and innovative new spaces to better support our students and their learning.

But schools are more than physical spaces.  They are given life by the people in them.  And so I am excited for the other ways we are expanding our capacity - individually and collectively - to care, to learn, to lead.

 

This year our high school will be implementing a new schedule with a later start to the day and with longer blocks of time designed to support deeper learning, enhanced engagement and student wellness.  The middle school will be piloting “advisory,” a program in which teachers spend time each week intentionally building relationships and engaging students in smaller groups.  And at the elementary level, we will be piloting two new math programs, integrating even greater differentiation into our science curriculum, and continuing to revise our social studies curriculum to represent the rich historical narratives of multiple cultures.

 

The Princeton Public Schools continue to demonstrate statewide leadership in the area of equity, and I am proud of our focus on “knowing every child” and on incorporating into our instruction the cultures, the interests, and the learning strengths of our students.  We will continue that focus in the year ahead as we expand our efforts to provide differentiated instruction and culturally responsive teaching.  We will continue that focus as we join with our students - and with all who share in our story – in modeling what it means to care, to learn, to lead.

I am honored and excited to write with you this next chapter in our learning adventure!  Welcome back to school!  

 

Sincerely,

Steve Cochrane

 

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1