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Princeton NJ Back to School Announcements

School Begins at The Princeton Center for Arts & Education

The Princeton Center for Arts & Education welcomes its new schools this fall as faculty and staff of The American Boychoir School move in to the residences and students from the French American School of Princeton and The Wilberforce School begin classes.

Formerly St. Joseph's Seminary, The Princeton Center for Arts & Education, on 75 Mapleton Drive, Princeton, is a unique collective of small independent schools which value a strong academic education. The PCAE campus includes a gymnasium, auditorium, and athletic fields located on the expansive and wonderfully landscaped grounds, just off Route 1 and Carnegie Lake. 

The French American School of Princeton, opened its doors in September 2000 with a mission to offer bilingual and bicultural education to both the French speaking community in the Princeton area and the American families seeking an academically rigorous education, grades pre-K through middle school, in a challenging bilingual environment.  The school previously had two locations with 20 minutes driving distance away from each other. The move to the PCAE campus allows the French American School to consolidate its sites onto one campus.

The Wilberforce School, which enrolls students from junior kindergarten through 8^th grade, is a classical Christian school.  The curriculum emphasizes great works of literature, history and art and classical teaching methods.    The PCAE campus gives wonderful new possibilities to expand the school’s emphasis on nature studies, art and sports.

Lisa Eckstrom, the new Head of School at The American Boychoir School said, “One way for small schools to thrive is to form partnerships with other schools so that they can establish larger economies of scale.  To my knowledge, although this has been tried at the college level, it has never been tried by K-8 independent schools.  It's a fantastic idea.  It offers tremendous opportunities for small private schools to share resources, split costs, and offer our students richer experiences.  I love all of the possibilities that lay ahead of us." 

At the heart of the 47- acre campus is a 1934 neo-gothic chapel that will be used by the world-renowned American Boychoir for rehearsals and other special performances open to the public throughout the year.  The schedule can be found at www.americanboychoir.org/themusic.  The chapel, as well as other spaces on campus, serves as a performing arts venue for local, regional and national arts institutions and performance groups.