On Sunday, May 5, Plainsboro will celebrate Founder’s Day.
Before May 6, 1919, part of Plainsboro Village belonged to Cranbury. In 1918 a Middlesex County superintendent visited Plainsboro’s only school, the two-room Grange Hall. Concerned that some kids were being taught on the second floor of the wood-frame building with only one stairway, he decreed that a new school be built.
John Van Buren Wicoff, a Plainsboro resident and Cranbury school board member, brought the request to the Cranbury Board of Education, which voted against it, citing a tight budget and calling the proposal “unpatriotic” in the midst of World War I. Wicoff, Henry Jeffers Sr., and others went to Trenton and petitioned the state legislature to create the Township of Plainsboro. On May 6, 1919, a public referendum was voted and passed, and Plainsboro Township was founded. A new school was built and was renamed Wicoff Elementary School in 1975. Since it was started over an education dispute, Plainsboro is called the Education Township.
A century later, education, school safety, and taxes are still main concerns in Plainsboro. I’m running for WW-P school board. I will listen to and speak for residents. If elected, I will try my best to balance education quality, school safety, and taxes.
Happy birthday, Plainsboro!
Yu “Taylor” Zhong
Plainsboro
The writer is a candidate for the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education.
