The Cranbury Press 2017-03-24

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SERVING THE VALLEY’S COMMUNITIES AND SCHOOLS SINCE 1956

TIMEOFF

SPORTS

This show is murder!

New coaches

A review of ‘Murder on the Orient Express at McCarter. Plus: Paul Muldoon at Labyrinth Books.

Sara Doran and Julia Giordano are both expereicned leaders. Page 7A

Vol. 129, NO. 12

Published every Friday

Friday, March 24, 2017

cranburypress.com

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School board OKs tentative tax hike By Philip Sean Curran Staff Writer

Photo by Phil McAuliffe

Big-time browsing Volunteer Judy Everitt of Princeton works on setting up books for the annual Bryn Mawr-Wellesley Book Sale that was held this week at Princeton Day School. Started in 1931, the sale is the longest-running and largest used-book-selling endeavor on the East Coast, according to the group’s website. It is renowned for not only the number of books but also the quality it offers. Proceeds from the sale go to scholarships for local students. The organization also recycles a large number of books, provides a place for book lovers to buy quality volumes at reasonable prices and helps those who want to reduce the sizes of their libraries.

Nissen photos to be featured at Gourgaud

David Nissen’s photography will be featured in April at the Gourgaud Gallery in Cranbury. This is Nissen’s second exhibit in the gallery. It presents some 45 images from three sources: Cranburyiana: including the Memorial Day parade, construction of the dam, seasonal images of the lake; New York City cityscapes: the Battery and the Hudson River, the Bowery and Lower East Side, Central Park; and Western deserts: Death Valley - Badwater Basin, Mesquite Dunes; Redrock Arizona/Utah - Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley. The artwork is for sale with 20 percent of each sale going to support the Cranbury Arts Council and its programs. Cash or a check made

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Courtesy photo

This is one of the photos by David Nissen that will be featured at Gourgaud Gallery in April. out to the Cranbury Arts Council is accepted as payment. See www.cranburyartscouncil.org for more information. There will be a reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 2, to launch the exhibit. The gallery, located in Town Hall, 23-A North

Main Street in Cranbury, is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday; and Sunday, April 2 and Sunday, April 23, from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information contact David Nissen by email at dnissen@comcast.net.

School taxes would go up in Princeton by 4.7 percent, based on a tentative $95.6 million budget that the Board of Education adopted Thursday despite concerns about the size of the hike. The district is taking advantage of waivers for rising health-care costs and enrollment growth to raise taxes above the 2-percentcap. At the average home assessment of $821,771, school taxes would rise by $223.95, figures showed this week. That hike is less than the roughly $360 increase the district was staring at around 10 day ago, along with a nearly $400,000 deficit that had to be closed. In the time between then and Thursday, the district cut some proposed spending by $147,570 and eliminated $248,545 worth of new staff requests. “We went back and we made some adjustments … to make the budget in balance,” school business administrator Stephanie Kennedy told board members. Yet the tax hike was weighing on the minds of the board, in a community where taxes are already high and where the district is expected to seek community support next year for a facilities bond referendum. One official talked about the message the district needs to send to the public. “So there’s a whole host of things I think that we have to think about over the longer term,” school board President Patrick Sullivan said. “It’s like, what is the conversation you want to have with people like that, with this community, about where we’re headed.” The budget next has to be reviewed by the state Department of Education, before the board adopts the final version on April 25. During the roughly three-hour board meeting, officials returned to a familiar topic—the Princeton

Charter School—and the impact of its phased-in enrollment growth. The Charter School got permission from acting Commissioner of Education Kimberley Harrington to add 76 more children, spread over two years. In this year’s budget, the district has set aside $826,266 for the expected first wave of 54 new children. Officials, though, raised the prospect of trying to negotiate with the Charter School to enroll fewer new students. Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Cochrane, during the meeting, revealed details of a private conversation that he had with Lawrence Patton, the head administrator at the Charter School. Cochrane said he had told Patton that “‘If the Charter School Trustees feel in their conscience that the right thing for the community would be to limit their expansion or implement it more gradually, then we would welcome that.’” Cochrane said he would be willing to contact Patton and ask if the Charter School were thinking of doing that, “it would be really helpful for us, in our planning, if you did it before April 25 so we can adjust our budget accordingly.” The one incentive Cochrane and the school board could offer the Charter School would be for the district to drop its legal challenge to the enrollment expansion. “That is always something valuable if you can get rid of a litigation. There’s certainty there,” said school board member William D. Hare, a lawyer and Charter School parent. Later, Sullivan said the Charter School Trustees should consider the school board’s offer to merge with the district “under one budget.” “They don’t have, obviously, a legal obligation to do that,” he said, “but as members of the community and with their taking community funding, I think they have sort of a moral obligation to consider that and at least think about what that might look like.”

Cranbury man receives highest Boy Scouts volunteer award

John Nieradka, Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 6284 in East Windsor, and George Conley of Cranbury, each have received the Silver Beaver award from the Washington Crossing Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Nieradka also received the International Scouter’s Award. The Silver Beaver is the highest

award a council can give to an adult scout volunteer. Nieradka is a member of the Mercer Area District of the Boy Scouts, Order of the Arrow chapter advisor and a unit commissioner. He also is part of the Campmaster Corps, a merit badge counselor and assistant advisor to Crew 4385. Nieradka heads up the World Friendship Fund and has been to World Jamboree’s in Japan and Sweden. He also has served on the international staff of the Jamboree. Conley is a member of the Mercer Area District and has been a scoutmaster and assistant cubmaster, member of the Order of the Arrow, serves as a merit badge counselor and is co-chair of the Mercer Area District golf outing. He is on the Cranbury First Aid Squad and has been an EMT for 25 From left to right, John Nieradka of East Windsor and George Conley of Cranbury. years.

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