Meet the Princeton Board of Education Candidates

Three candidates are vying for three positions on Princeton's Board of Education. Patch interviewed each of the candidates, here are their answers (presented in alphabetical order):

Name: Daniel Haughton

Age: 60

Occupation: Internet software executive at Connotate

Residence:  Finley Road

How long have you lived in Princeton Township: 29 years

Do your children attend Princeton schools: Daughters Elizabeth, 22, and Carter, 20, both graduated from Princeton High School. Daughter Margaret, 17, is a junior at Princeton High School.

How long have you been on the board of education?  Three years.

Why are you running for reelection: I think there’s a lot of work to be done. I ran three years ago focusing on two main issues- providing an outstanding education for everyone at every level, and being a good fiduciary for our taxpayers’ money, I wanted to be very cognizant of our financial responsibility to the taxpayers.

Now it’s making sure in this tough environment where we’re forced to cut costs and look at other revenue sources, that we’re doing it. 

What’s the number one issue facing the school district? The single most important issue is one of funding, including the amount of money we’re paying to charter schools, and trying to reign in spending so charter schools are not siphoning off money for education.

We are also looking for other sources of money aside from taxpayers. I’m chairing a fundraising initiative to raise money from alumni and parents for our technology needs. 

Name: Timothy Quinn

Age: 53

Occupation: Public information director at Princeton Public Library

Residence: Wilton Street

How long have you lived in Princeton Borough? 21 years

Do you your children attend Princeton schools: Son George attended Riverside Elementary School. He is now in eighth grade at the American Boys Choir School but will attend Princeton High School beginning in the fall. 

How long have you been on the board? Three years.

Why are you running for reelection? My work is not done. I absolutely love serving on the board, it's a great board, a great district, but even in a high performing district, there are always ways to improve the performance of our schools.

One thing I’ve focused on a lot in my first term is that all students are given what they need to achieve and closing the achievement gap, especially for students who are economically disadvantaged. I want to continue that work.

What's the number one issue facing the school district:  What we’re able to achieve in the public schools, it does come down to money. We're facing fiscal contraints imposed by the state that potentially could interfere with ability to close the achievement gap. For instance, we take $5 million off top of our budget that goes to educate limited number of students in our district (through charter schools). That’s a challenge that we have to deal with.

Specifically, what will you do to address that: We as a board, we can serve as stewards for the public's trust and make sure we’re making wise decisions. I know there's an increasing emphasis on technology, but have to make sure that we’re making smart purchases of technology. We should look at open source textbooks that could provide us with lower cost alternative to our textbook budget. We have to find the best teachers and hire them and give them tools needed to grow. There’s a lot that the board can do.

The board is not there to run the schools, we’re there to make sure right people running schools and provide oversight.

Name: Afsheen Shamsi

Age: 35

Occupation: founder of Philantrophia Consulting, which helps business owners and non profits with fundraising and board development.

Residence: William Patterson Court

How long have you lived in Princeton Township? Five years.

Do you have children in the Princeton Schools? A son in fifth grade.  

Why are you running for school board? I’m running to give back. Our son has autism and we moved to Princeton because we were looking for a program that met his needs. We found a wonderful school that has changed the quality of our lives. And I felt that Princeton's public school system had helped so much and I wanted to give back, this is my way of giving back. 

What's the number one issue facing the school district? There are a couple of things. The first is I want to ensure that the school is financially stable and even though there have not been program cuts we haven't been able to fund technology and the school is behind there.

We need to get private resources to fund the public school district. The Princeton Education Foundation is doing wonderful things for that. The focus should be to update technology in the schools so students can use multimedia technology and have updated technology at their disposal. 

Specifically, what will you do to address that: In the professional world, I am a professional fundraiser. I think that I can help the school secure resources. I don’t think we should be shifting funding concerns to taxpayers, we should look to private sources.