Head of Princeton Day School will step down in June of 2023

Paul Stellato, the head of school at Princeton Day School since 2008, will step down in June of 2023 at the end of his 15th year at the school. Princeton Day School is a pre-K through grade 12 independent school located on the Great Road.

Stellato is credited with strengthening faculty professional development, diversifying the school community, boosting wellness resources for children, and successfully raising money for new school facilities during his tenure at the school. His wife, Maureen Stellato, served as a special events manager in the advancement office at the school for seven years.

In a letter to the Princeton Day School community, Stellato said he and his wife came to the decision to leave in 2023 after extended conversations about their lives together and with their children.

“How fortunate I have been to sit in this seat, walk these corridors, visit these classrooms, stand on the stage of McAneny Theater and sit mesmerized in its seats, linger in the garden, climb in the ropes course, breathe deep in the greenhouse, wander through the Matthews Arts Wing, read in the Lower School, act and sing in the Operetta, teach in the 8th Grade, serve as an advisor, lead the Halloween Parade, cheer at Smoyer, Pagoda, Krueger, and Baker Fields, roar in the stands at the Lisa McGraw ’44 Skating Rink, and burst with pride and joy at an overtime goal that bested a foe at Baker Rink,” Stellato wrote. “Together we have thrived through a recession and a pandemic, faced forward in pursuit of equity and justice, watched proudly as our school enrollment came to reflect the larger community it serves, and worked tirelessly to endow our students with a sense of awe of the natural world and an appreciation of their responsibility to it.”

The board of trustees for the school has hired the firm Spencer Stuart to conduct the search for Stellato’s replacement. The search committee will be chaired by Ashley Aitken-Davies, a Princeton Day School parent and trustee.