Mayor Wants State Review Of Charter School Expansion: Report

PRINCETON, NJ — With a new governor in office, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said it’s time to review the New Jersey Department of Education’s decision to allow the Princeton Charter School to expand.

Last March, the state approved the Princeton Charter School’s application to expand its class size in Grades K-8 from 348 students to 424. Both the Princeton Public School District and Lempert spoke out against the expansion when the application was filed.

This week, Lempert told the Princeton Packet she hopes new Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration would review the expansion, since there was no explanation provided by the state for the approval. She said she didn’t know if a full reversal of the decision was possible, but she was hoping for a “freeze” of future expansion at the Princeton Charter School until there is a review and an explanation for the expansion can be provided.

At the time of the approval, Acting Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington said, "Many parents continue to choose to send their children to public charter schools, and we remain committed to being responsive to their calls for increased opportunities for their children." The expansion was one of eight schools whose expansion requests were approved last year.

During his campaign, Murphy said in an interview with the New Jersey School Boards Association that he supported a “time out” on the charter school expansion process while some issues are tackled. He said he was concerned that under the previous administration, “ the voices of school board members, educators, and communities” were being shut out; that charter schools don’t accommodate “high needs students;” and that charter schools were being held to an “unequal set of standards of accountability than” public schools.

He has nominated Asbury Park Schools Superintendent Lamont Repollet to serve as his Department of Education Commissioner.

Princeton Superintendent of Public Schools Steve Cochrane has said that if students transferred to the charter school from the public school district, it wouldn't be enough to reduce grade populations to the point where the district would need to employ fewer teachers and staff members, but it would be enough that the district would have to pay the charter school additional tuition, under state guidelines. It also wouldn't help with the public school district's growing population problem, as Cochrane has said the biggest problem is at the high school level.

Princeton Charter School Board of Trustees President Paul Josephson has said the charter school won't be taking students from the school district, but instead help accommodate the growing population of students.
He also said "it is plain that the enrollment spike is affecting all grades at PPS, not just the high school," and it will continue in the coming months.

Patch file photo