To the Editor:

After growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs and working in New York, I moved to the Princeton area to maintain proximity to these parts of my life and in appreciation of the area’s many fine attributes.   But of all the great communities in the area, my family chose Princeton for the outstanding schools.

As a community, like others everywhere else in the country, we face the challenge of how to do more with less.  Resources are constrained and the need to produce excellence is paramount.  This extends to the schools which served as a magnet for our family.

And so I wish to commend and lend my support to the 2012-2013 school budget.  With just a 1 percent increase, it has stayed well within the 2 percent cap.  And it has done so without layoffs or the cutting of programs, thus preserving a key asset of the community that continues to draw new residents.

While visiting family for Spring Break, my high school sophomore daughter asked me about the schools in the town in which we were staying.  I told her they were good but the education she was getting in Princeton was as good as any in the country.  This is why we live here.

John Lopez-Ona
Winfield Road