Election 2024: Mara Franceschi For Princeton Board Of Education
PRINCETON, NJ — Mara Franceschi is seeking a second term on the Princeton Board of Education. She is the only incumbent seeking reelection this year.
In a Q&A with Patch, Franceschi talks about the future challenges the district could face and how her experience could help Princeton Schools navigate the challenges ahead.
Election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
I am running for a second term because I believe experience matters to ensure the continued success of our district. As the only incumbent running for reelection, I have critical institutional knowledge and experience to help guide the district. I consider very few things more important than a high-quality public education for ALL our children. I expect our district to have high expectations for each of our children as we seek to enable them to fulfill their potential and become engaged citizens in a global society. For over 14 years, I have been actively volunteering in the schools and our community. I am the proud product of a public-school education and the proud mother of three children – currently a freshman and senior at the high school and a freshman in college – who have and are benefitting from our excellent Princeton Public Schools. With an MBA from Columbia and a CFA, my strong financial experience allows me to balance critical, necessary investments in our schools while keeping tax increases to a minimum, which is always at the forefront of my decision-making. And finally, my three years of experience on the board and 14 years of working with our past five superintendents, allow me an understanding of all the traits required of a superstar superintendent and will guide me in finding the next one. It has been an honor to serve the district and I hope to continue to serve our community and district.
With my strong financial background, experience chairing and participating on multiple board committees including Personnel, Operations, Long-Term Planning, and Negotiations, and my long history with the district, I bring critical institutional and financial knowledge. The Board is a serious time commitment with a long learning curve. I am committed to giving the Board, our community, and, most importantly, our children, the time and professional attention to do the job well.
As co-chair of the Board's Personnel Committee, I've learned about the intricacies of law specific to education versus the private sector and the challenges of recruiting and retaining excellent teachers in a tight job market. Serving on the Negotiations committee, I've learned about the complexities of labor contacts, while membership on the Operations and Long-Term Planning committees has given me a heightened sense of the delicate balancing required to operate a complex, high-performing school district with a $100 million+ budget, with the pressures of a 2% year-to-year cap in an inflationary environment.
My 14-year volunteer history with the schools at each level has given me significant institutional knowledge. Dr. Foster is the fifth superintendent with whom I have worked (though the first I was involved in hiring), giving me a solid sense of what skill sets have worked well previously and are important to the community. I have an excellent understanding of all the traits required of a superstar superintendent which will guide me in finding the next one. I have seen many different teaching techniques introduced and have personal experience at the elementary, middle and high school levels. I believe this depth of knowledge has greatly enhanced my effectiveness as a board member charged with overseeing the breadth of district business, from curriculum and student health, wellness and safety, to finances, operations and future planning.
The three biggest issues facing the Princeton Public Schools are:
- Managing both the near-term and longer-term building capacity constraints in our schools and the inequitable distribution of these pressures resulting from the increased growth in town
- Creatively addressing the structural gap our budget faces, and
- Finding new talent in an expanding district with the ever-worsening teacher shortage.
The nearest-term challenge is balancing our aging facilities against a backdrop of the rapidly increasing growth in town, leading to increased student enrollment. Early next year we will hold a special election where our community will vote on a critical referendum to address the district's capacity constraints. Whether or not the referendum passes, the district will face redistricting. One scenario would be more immediate, while the passing of the referendum would allow for a more gradual redistricting, but both will require significant thoughtful consideration. My broad experience makes me the best candidate to help lead us through this process.
The district continues to face significant challenges as the Board balances student needs, rising enrollments, inflationary pressures, mandated budget caps, and high community expectations. My financial background is indispensable in helping guide the district as we balance critical, necessary investments in our schools while keeping tax increases to a minimum, which is always at the forefront of my decision-making.
It's admirable the town is taking steps to acquire Westminster. However, there are no near-term implications for the schools, as it could take almost a decade before students are in actual seats as legal entanglements are worked through, proper environmental and other clearances are obtained, community engagement on possible uses sought, and construction is completed. Fortunately, when the dust settles years from now, we will have had the opportunity to understand the additional growth implied by the newly adopted Master Plan and implementation of future rounds of affordable housing. At that time, Westminster may offer a future board a perfectly situated property to creatively and cost-effectively answer possible future capacity needs. In the near term, the January referendum is the most cost-effective answer to respond to immediate uneven growth capacity issues.
The district enthusiastically welcomes all new students but is currently struggling to maintain historical class sizes and find space.
The town is projecting population growth around 10 percent and a further fair share plan will be finalized by June 2025. We will then learn where subsequent Alices and Avalons will be built. The proposed January referendum, however, is statutorily not allowed to consider this future growth. It only addresses the immediate and near-term growth we have already experienced. Many of our schools are at capacity. Without additional space, in the very near term, we will be tasked with the difficult decisions of redistricting, increasing class sizes, possibly moving art and music to carts, reducing academic offerings, and other solutions to convert all available spaces to classrooms. In an increasing number of districts, the local municipality recognizes this challenge and dedicates PILOT funds to the schools when PILOTs are part of new housing developments, as they often are in Princeton.
My first priority is always the student and their experience. As a district, we protect and increase the budget if necessary to ensure the student experience remains undiminished. An example of this might be hiring an additional teacher or other staff to address growing student enrollment. However, before the budget is increased, every measure is taken to find a budget-neutral way to achieve our goal through grants, breakage, or other creative means.
Transportation costs have risen significantly in recent years as the labor market has tightened and as capacity, constraints have necessitated increased busing of students. I would like to continue to investigate creative solutions that address our federal requirements while reducing inefficiencies.
As a member of the Operations Committee, I am particularly proud that in the face of a challenging, inflationary environment, we were able to balance our budget, maintain our Aaa bond rating and keep our 2024 tax rate increase to 2.2 percent versus 4.7 percent for the town and 13.4 percent for the county. While no tax rate increase is necessarily good, continuing to minimize them is key as we balance critical, necessary investments in our schools.
Communication is a constant challenge. The district recently created a role that includes a communications component. We have already seen benefits and strive to always improve.
The addition of Dr. Tew to our administration in the last few years has been very impactful. I am pleased with the evolutions we've made in our curriculum. Elementary staff have been trained in the proven Orton-Gillingham structured approach to literacy. Focusing on early intervention, the district aims to remedy literacy skill deficits before third grade to narrow persistent achievement gaps. The math program has been restructured to standardize how children are placed and improve math course progression. Rising test scores reflect all the hard work going on in the district. While there is always room for improvement, I believe our curriculum is overall very strong and I am constantly amazed and impressed by our fantastic teachers and staff. The district continues to regularly review its curriculum and make necessary adjustments.
I believe public schools should be an inclusive and welcoming place for ALL which means that every student who walks the corridors of our schools feels they're in a warm, supportive, safe environment, and that each student feels included and that they have a voice.
The Board is a serious time commitment with a long learning curve. I am committed to giving the Board, our community, and, most importantly, our children, the time to do the job well.
I am uniquely qualified among the candidates running to assist the district from the very first day of my next term. I would be honored to continue to serve the Princeton community, all our children, and you as a member of the Board of Education.
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