Dear Parents and Families,

Welcome to Peters Elementary School. It is with great pleasure that I serve the students, staff, and community as Principal of Peters Elementary School. This is my 23rd year in public school education. I spent my first 18 years teaching K-12 music in schools in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This will be my 5th year as the Principal of Peters. I am excited to begin the 2023-2024 school and to lead a staff that is dedicated to creating a supportive environment for your children to learn and grow. 

Over the summer, I have spent a lot of time examining the instructional data for the school last year. Although our staff wears many hats, our primary goal is always to help students grow and prepare them to achieve as they develop. I am pleased to share that students in K-2 showed tremendous growth in both reading and mathematics from the beginning to the end of the 2022-2023 school year. This highlights the skill of our teachers and the abilities of our students! We hope to build on this for the upcoming year. Bravo - I am so proud!

I believe that it “Takes a Village to Raise a Child”. Your child’s teachers and the staff at our school are an important part of that village, but we recognize that parents and guardians are vital to a child’s development. Mr. Breiner and I are looking forward to holding our monthly Family Engagement Meetings, where we hope to bring the entire “village” together. We have been holding these meetings for the past five years to engage with Peters’ families and give every parent a voice in their child’s education. We are looking to change the format this year to be even more engaging by inviting guests to meetings in order to provide more perspective to our conversations. As always, parents will be invited to not only attend the meetings, but to suggest ideas for improving our schools.

I am so proud to be the principal here, in a school that supports the district’s motto: Living, Learning, and Leading to make every story better. If there is ever a need to discuss a matter related to your child’s education, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, or your child’s teachers.

I’m looking forward to an amazing 2023-2024 school year! 

Respectfully,

James Schnyderite

JSchnyderite@nlsd.org