Charter Schools and District Admin Likely at Monday BofT Meeting

Charter schools have become a hot topic across the two towns.

Monday night, the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education .

On Tuesday, Superintendent of Schools Brian Osborne and Board of Education President Beth Daugherty asked the Maplewood Township Committee to support those resolutions, arguing that the two proposed charter schools would have a harmful economic — and ultimately educational — impact on the school district and that charter school law constituted a lack of control for local voters and elected officials over their own tax dollars.

Next, Osborne and Daugherty said, they would be petitioning the South Orange Village Trustees, who meet again on Monday, May 23.

Osborne and Daugherty were asking for support for two resolutions passed by the Board of Education on Monday night:

• Res. 2757 authorizing the superintendent to send a recommendation against the approval of the  and Rita Owens charter schools to the the State Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf; and
• Res. 2759 in support of the , calling for local voters to have a voice in deciding the fate of charter schools in their districts, if those districts are predominantly funded by local taxes.

The Maplewood Township Committee spent more than 30 minutes discussing the issues, ultimately deciding not to support the two Board of Education resolutions but to craft its own.

Mayor Vic DeLuca and Committeeperson Jerry Ryan expressed discomfort dabbling in school district affairs, feeling that it was not within the purview of the governing body to express an opinion on specific charter school applications.

DeLuca also felt that the second resolution, supporting the NJ School Board Association resolution, presented "a slippery slope." Said DeLuca, "We have to be mindful of the system across the state." DeLuca said that the Township Committee's actions "could have unintended consequences for other districts."

Deputy Mayor Fred Profeta wanted more time to consider the issue. "I didn't hear about this until a half hour ago," said Profeta. "This is really enormous. There's not enough time."

DeLuca supported Vice Mayor Kathleen Leventhal's suggestion that the Township Committee craft its own resolution asking for a review of and changes to the state charter school law. The Township Committee would present the resolution for approval at its June 7, 2011 meeting.