PRINCETON: Exit interview with outgoing school board president – ‘It’s the right time to move on’

By Erica Chayes Wida, Packet Media
When Andrea Spalla’s son, Benjamin, entered Community Park Elementary School in 2005, the new-to-Princeton mom volunteered to shelve books in the school library. Surrounded by two of her favorite things — books and children — it became the springboard for what would become a long and impactful role in the public school system., After serving as president of the Princeton Board of Education for two terms — a service she treated as a full-time job with her career as a New York City attorney behind her — Ms. Spalla bid her colleagues adieu at an emotional board meeting on Dec. 13., The admiration of her work permeated the crowded room., “I have never met anyone who inspired me more in my role as an educator,” Superintendent Steve Cochrane said as Ms. Spalla’s eyes welled with tears in gratitude., Ms. Spalla moved to Princeton after a two-year stint in Munich, Germany, with her husband, Kevin Royer, and sons, Benjamin, now a Princeton High School senior, and James, a PHS sophomore., “I love Princeton for the smart, funny, fascinating, passionate people in our community. It’s never, ever boring here,” Ms. Spalla said., An avid reader and involved parent, Ms. Spalla looks to the future optimistically and says goodbye to her years making waves in public education:, The Packet: Which, to you, is one of the more momentous board achievements made under your leadership?, Ms. Spalla: The most momentous decision our board made (although before I became president), and the one for which I’m most grateful to have been part of, was finding and hiring Steve Cochrane. He’s a remarkably gifted, tenacious, empathetic leader and creative thinker. I can’t tell you how many parents, veteran teachers and staff members — a few I didn’t even know — have thanked me for hiring him, saying he’s the best superintendent the district has ever had. They just may be right., The Packet: Why did you decide to not run for another term on the Board of Education?, Ms. Spalla: It was the right time for me to move on. I approached my board service as a full-time job, and I loved it — even (especially!) the hard parts. But it is difficult to sustain. The weight of the board’s decisions and their impact, the worries about the children and their needs, the budgetary and regulatory pressures — we all carry them around with us all the time. I was never not thinking about them., I also truly believe that well-timed leadership changes are healthy for the board. So, leaving now, after serving six years and eight months, was the right decision, both for me personally and for the board., The Packet: What will you miss most about those Tuesday night board meetings at Valley Road?, Ms. Spalla: Listening to the insightful, thought-provoking reports of our high school student board representatives. Sometimes they move me to tears. I suppose I can still watch them on TV although it won’t quite be the same, somehow., The Packet: What was your favorite aspect of serving on the board?, Ms. Spalla: Oh my goodness — there are so many fabulous things about it, I couldn’t name one favorite. Marveling at the “beautiful work” (to borrow one of former superintendent Judy Wilson’s lovely, apt phrases) of our children and their educators. Being involved in the planning stages of exciting innovations such as the DLI program, and then seeing them surpass even our highest hopes. Listening to high school students and working with staff on board policies that respond to their needs and protect the legal rights of certain vulnerable children (such as the board’s transgender policy). Talking to the hundreds of passionately committed, generous parents whose dedication to the strength of our schools and the success of all our kids inspired me every single day. I could go on and on., The Packet: What do you hope to see accomplished in coming years as a Princeton resident with insight into the public school system?, Ms. Spalla: I realize that the pressures created by high enrollment at John Witherspoon and PHS in particular, and the district’s needs for new and larger facilities, are foremost on everyone’s minds, understandably., But amidst the hard work around the planning for those needs we shouldn’t lose sight of what’s happening — and what still needs to improve — within the walls of our classrooms. If the district’s five-year strategic plan is methodically, universally implemented (as I know Steve Cochrane is working hard to do), the changes it will bring will have a profound, meaningful and long-lasting positive impact on the daily experiences of our students in our schools right now (and those to come)., I hope that Steve, the board and the staff are able to maintain progress on the plan’s implementation, even during the urgently important, busy and difficult process of planning for facilities expansions., The Packet: Are there any loose ends you’d wished you could have tied before “riding off into the sunset?”, Ms. Spalla: So many. That would require a separate article. For starters, look at every single “action item” in the strategic plan. I wish I had a magic wand to make it all happen now., The Packet: What do you plan to do with your spare time now that you are not president of the board? Any particular hobbies or New Year resolutions you’ll be taking on?, Ms. Spalla: My resolution for 2017 is to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. Serving on the school board will be hard to top, though.