There’s a melee going on in Princeton where Superintendent Carol Kelley is under attack because the local School Board accepted her recommendation to not renew Princeton High School Principal Frank Chmiel’s contract. In response, parents and teachers held a rally and started a petitions to demand Kelley’s resignation. In addition, the teachers union and the school board released statements, and Chmiel put out a lengthy statement of his own saying his performance evaluation had been “weaponized.” Two Princeton residents started a gofundme page for Chmiel’s legal expenses (he’s apparently not using the lawyers available through his union), which has collected almost $20,000.

Today the group called Executive Board of Princeton Parents for Black Children issued its own statement defending Kelley (who is Black). Here is the statement:

The Executive Board of Princeton Parents for Black Children (PPBC) expresses its support of and trust in Princeton Public School Superintendent Dr. Carol Kelley and the Board of Education in its recent personnel decisions regarding Princeton High School. We also condemn and share our disappointment in efforts by a small, but vocal, group of parents to use these decisions as a pretext to mount a vicious and disrespectful misinformation campaign against Dr. Carol Kelley and other Black women leaders in the district.

The latest attacks against Dr. Kelley started with two widely distributed inaccurate and inflammatory emails. These emails claimed to alert the community about the supposedly unjust “firing” of the PHS principal, the Superintendent’s alleged ignoring of the Police Department’s recommendation – actually never made — to place armed police in schools and the decline in students’ mental health supposedly attributable to actions by the Superintendent. Despite the unanimous support of the Board of Education in the PHS personnel decision, Dr. Kelley and her efforts to improve the schools became the main target of anti-equity parents, much of the same forces that led an attack against Dr. Kelley last year, unsuccessfully ran anti-equity candidates in the most recent election and supported the raising of a racist banner right before the election.

Unfortunately, these public attacks have expanded to include specific members of her diverse leadership team (Math and Business Supervisor, Stephanie Tidwell and Supervisor of Science Dr. Joy Barnes-Johnson, both Black women) and Michele Tuck-Ponder, a five-time elected official, who is the only Black woman on the PHS Board of Education.

Despite the prevalence of misinformation, we find that Dr. Kelley, who entered the district in the heart of the pandemic and after critical members of the District leadership resigned, has done a phenomenal job. This was exemplified in the unprecedented “State of the District” event where she shared the BOE approved five-year strategic plan which included input from the community, teachers and staff. She has begun or conducted assessments of the Dual Language Learning program and the district’s math curriculum. She has expanded the availability of pre-school, made advances in early learning literacy. begun implementation of the Special Education audit and made building security for our children a priority. Despite the pandemic and the conditions of the district upon her arrival she has rebuilt her leadership team with highly qualified individuals.

In short, she is successfully making changes that have some. inexplicably, scared that they will not have the resources and privileges that attracted them to this community.

Attacks against educators and education are taking place around the country. From banning books, to eliminating Black History from curriculum, to discrimination against LGBTQ students, to physical attacks and threats against Board of Education members, this country is confronted with a crisis that is being led by people with a specific political agenda. It has become a national movement and, noticably, outsiders have joined the few locals to target Princeton.

We owe it to Princeton’s children to speak up against this anti-education movement and advocate for a more inclusive and better education for all our children. We will not countenance the racist lynch-mob behavior of a few who have been trying to stop change in our own community since we gained a talented, skilled and effective administrator. We encourage our members and allys to speak out. Share your views with your neighbors, the community and decision-makers through emails, letters and by speaking out at meetings.

Thank you for your vigilance and care for your and our children.

The PPBC Executive Board