Private school may leave town

SciCore Academy founder hopes to move school to West Windsor Township

By: Vic Monaco
   HIGHTSTOWN — A private school begun in the borough in 2003 is likely to move.
   SciCore Academy has run out of room at 120 Main St., according to founder Arthur Poulos, who hopes to get approval in December to relocate to West Windsor Township.
   The private school has been leasing about 4,700 square feet at the former site of the Hightstown movie theater. Begun with an enrollment of about a dozen ninth-grade students, the school expects to have about 80 students in sixth through 12th grade in the fall.
   "It’s very nice here but we just are running out of closet space and things like that … we need bigger lab space with a partition so we can have two labs at the same time," Mr. Poulos said. "We also need a separate room for our industrial design course."
   Mr. Poulos — who has a doctorate in physical chemistry and teaching experience at Rutgers University — hopes to move to an 11,000-square-foot facility on Princeton-Hightstown Road. He is scheduled to appear before the zoning board in West Windsor next month to seek a use variance.
   "I’m very optimistic," he said. "I hope we can really communicate our mission so West Windsor can see it’s a very positive thing for the community."
   The school, which has 15 teachers including Mr. Poulus’ wife, focuses on science and preparing students for college.
   Mr. Poulus said officials of another private school have expressed interest in the Hightstown space, which is owned by a corporation set up by The Peddie School. Mike Pratico Jr. of Richardson Commercial, the realty firm that leases and manages the building, said he wasn’t aware of that. While the rental market is soft, he said, the company had "no significant challenges" when it first rented the space.
   Mr. Pratico added that Mr. Poulus’ lease runs until August.