Art charter school won’t set up in West Windsor after all

Ewing site is now the likely location for county high school

By: Nick Norlen
   The charter high school originally planned for West Windsor will not be located in the township after all, the school director said Tuesday.
   Mercer Arts Charter High School Director Barbara Taylor said negotiations are under way with the owner of a 22,000-square-foot former corporate building on Eggerts Crossing Road in Ewing Township.
   The tuition-free public high school, which is scheduled to open in the fall, will have a comprehensive curriculum with an emphasis on music, dance, fine arts, animation and theater.
   Ms. Taylor said the location originally planned for the school — off Alexander Road near Route 1 — would have required too many expensive renovations.
   "From what my architect estimated, given the condition for the site at Alexander Road, it would require at least $500,000 or more, which would not be financially viable to construct it as a school," she said.
   Ms. Taylor said she expects the building now under consideration will meet zoning requirements.
   "We will be going to have the landlord review the variances," she said. "That’s part of what we’re doing right now."
   She said the new site has better entrance and exit points and a better traffic flow.
   "The site that we found is in really highly desirable condition. It has everything that we need," she said. "It looks like we can install a performing arts space in it."
   However, Ms. Taylor said the site might not be the permanent location of the school.
   "We’re going to have to grow. We’re going to have a two-year lease and we’re going to need space to grow in size," she said. "I think perhaps we might move to a different site."
   According to Ms. Taylor, some of the renovations planned for the building will be portable, such as the dance floor. "Whatever we’re doing to it we’re going to need to take with us," she said.
   Ms. Taylor said she is unaware of where the future site might be.
   For now, the school is accepting applications from students in Ewing, Lawrence, Hopewell Valley, Princeton, Cranbury, Trenton and West Windsor-Plainsboro school districts. The deadline is April 15.
   After March 17, students from all school districts in Mercer County can submit applications.
   Ms. Taylor said the school will have a maximum enrollment of 300 students in ninth and 10th grades during the first year.
   In 2008, the maximum enrollment will be 450.
   "We’ll grow a class every year," she said, predicting there will be 600 students in grades nine through 12 after four years.
   Ms. Taylor said she expects applications to exceed the 300 available spaces in the school.
   "We started doing enrollment applications three weeks ago and we have 150," she said, adding that letters will be sent to parents of area 13- and 14-year-olds today.
   After the 300 applications are received, the school will institute a lottery system for additional applicants — a state mandated system designed to prevent preferential treatment, Ms. Taylor said.
   Parent information meetings will be held at the Princeton Public Library at 2 p.m. Saturday in the second floor conference room and 7 p.m. March 21 in the community room, as well as at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library 7 p.m. Tuesday.
   Applications are available at www.MercerArts.org.