Robert Ginsberg, the principal of Johnson Park Elementary School for more than two decades, is slated to be named the acting assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Princeton Public Schools.

Ginsberg has been an educator for more than five decades. He earned his doctorate from Cornell University and taught school in Brooklyn before moving to New Jersey to work as a gifted and talented supervisor in the East Brunswick Public Schools. In 1988, he came to Princeton to work as a principal at Littlebrook Elementary School. He served as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction after working at Little Brook, and then became the principal of Johnson Park Elementary School in 1999.

He will replace Annie Kosek, who recently announced that she would be retiring at the end of the school year. Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane is also retiring at the end of June.

“Bob is our most seasoned administrator. He knows our people, our programs, our community, and, most importantly, our mission. He will be an outstanding advocate for equity, innovation, and schools as places of joy,” Cochrane wrote in an email to parents and teachers Tuesday. “I am incredibly grateful to Bob for his willingness to help shepherd our district through this current crisis and into what I truly believe will be a new era in the evolution of education.”

Depending on when Ginsberg’s contract is approved by the Mercer County Superintendent, he could be officially appointed to the post by the school board on Tuesday night, May 26, or possibly on June 9. He will begin his new duties on July 1.

School officials will soon begin an internal search for an acting principal at Johnson Park and appoint Ginsberg’s replacement by the end of June. Officials will conduct a full search for a permanent principal most likely in the spring of next year, Cochrane wrote.

The school board is also slated to hire not one, but two assistant principals at the John Witherspoon Middle School on Tuesday night. Previously the school had one assistant principal.

Timothy Charleston is slated to be hired as an assistant principal at the middle school, replacing Lynne Harkness, effective Wednesday, May 27. He will be paid $130,558 per year. Stephanie DiCarlo will serve as the other assistant principal, earning $114,000 per year. She will start July 27, or possibly earlier if her current district releases her before that date.

The district is eliminating a supervisor of social studies position, a reading coach and an intervention specialist to fund the second assistant principal at the middle school, two achievement coaches, and a transportation assistant.