Princeton BOE Selects New Name For Middle School

PRINCETON, NJ — After a 10-month process, the Princeton Board of Education on Tuesday selected a new name for the middle school.

Effective July 1, the former John Witherspoon Middle School will be known as Princeton Middle School.

The name was selected through rank choice voting, said Board President Beth Behrend.

Princeton Public Schools (PPS) took possible name suggestions from students and community members, and actively engaged students in discussions with the purpose of developing name recommendations.

PPS also invited the community to vote for a new name for the middle school. A list of 10 names was shortlisted.

Some of the names on the shortlist included community historian Shirley Satterfield, Paul Robeson, Michelle Obama, Albert Einstein, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg

However, few members of the community expressed their displeasure with the “generic” name.

“I do not feel, as a member of the public, that we were informed clearly as to why we didn’t go with the option to nominate a ‘just human,’” said resident Hinda Winawer.

“Quite frankly, it does feel like Princeton is whitewashing history like the rest of our country does.”

Rev. Lukata Mjumbe pastor of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church said that during the voting process, he along with students walked door-to-door talking to people about the name change.

“60 percent of people we talked to knew Shirley Satterfield and supported the idea of the middle school being named after her,” said Mjumbe.

The pastor said the logical and “morally consistent” thing to do would be to name the school after someone who represents unity and “bringing together all of our histories.”

A long-term township resident said he was "confused" as to why the Board came to the meeting with a list of generic names. The resident said he expected Satterfield to have won the most votes in the renaming poll.

"Considering that it (school) was named after a slave owner for so many years, you should feel the importance and the need to rename it for somebody so significant in this community who's Black," said the resident who went by the first name Andreas.

However, middle school principal Jason Burr explained that the non-person-specific names were the top vote-getters across all sections — students, teachers, and community.

“In the community vote of almost 2500 people Shirley Satterfield was the leading person-specific vote-getter,” said Burr.

“But the non-person specific name was still the highest choice among community voters.”

After voting on the new name, the Board directed building administrators to honor the persons whose names were in consideration by using their names in other places in the middle school building, including hallways and public spaces.

The renaming also comes with an exhibition in the middle school Learning Commons that shows the history of education in Princeton. Funds to renovate a small wall in front of the school with the new name will be allocated.

Last summer, the Board of Education voted to remove John Witherspoon's name from the school due to his history of owning slaves. The name Princeton Unified Middle School was selected as a temporary name.

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