PRINCETON: No incumbents among six who file to run for three school board seats

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Six candidates including a former Princeton Township mayor will run for school board in November, in a race without a single incumbent.
Ex-mayor Michele Tuck-Ponder, Jenny Ludmer, Julie Ramirez, Beth Behrend, Jess Deutsch and James Fields will contest the three seats up in November. They were the only ones to submit petitions with the Mercer County Clerk’s office before the deadline Monday at 4 p.m.
Incumbents Fern Spruil, Justin Doran and Connie Witter are not running for re-election, each after serving one term. This represents part of a larger turnover happening on the school board at a time when the district is looking to accommodate a growing student enrollment.
The fall election will take place amid the backdrop of the district looking to have a facilities bond referendum early next year, acquire the Westminster Choir College campus and continue its legal battle against the Princeton Charter School.
Those and other issues will confront the three new members as they take office in January. School board members are unpaid and serve for three years.