Princeton Public Schools district hires new communications director

The Princeton Public Schools administration has hired a former New Jersey Department of Education employee to serve as the new communication’s director for the district.

Valerie Francois will be paid $79,500 plus benefits to handle communications and public relations for the district. Her appointment was announced last week, but the school board has not actually voted formally to approve it yet. She began her new post Aug. 16. The position was created about two years ago. Francois replaces Brenda Martens-Sewell, who was paid $63,800 a year, according to public records.

Francois was appointed by the Christie administration to serve as the division director of strategic partnerships and constituent communications at the New Jersey Department of Education in 2015. Previously she worked as the director of marketing and communications for the Ranney School in Monmouth County. She also worked as an educational outreach manager for the Siemens Foundation, as a program administrator for the Educational Testing Service, and as a web editor for the Girl Scouts USA. She earned her MBA from the University of Phoenix and her bachelor’s degree in journalism Penn State University. She lives in Plainsboro.

2 Comments

  1. Interesting that the School District feels it needs to spend $16,000 more than it has been spending for a communications and PR person, just as their campaign to get the $130 million referendum approved by taxpayers swings into high gear. A number of School Board members have stated that they “cannot tell voters how to vote on this.” To say nothing of the fact that our School District has busted the 2% NJ State cap on school tax increases for many years now. I guess $16,000 more is not even a rounding error in the school budget.

    1. PPS will pay a premium with our money for the NJ DOE insider filling this post (& this is only year one of her employment). How Trust fund kids behave with others’ money?Just a weird coincidence? ; ). Or Shameless?

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