By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
Princeton Regional School District officials are seeking approximately $100,000 in tuition payments that they said are owed by the now-closed Mercer Arts Charter School, but a state Department of Education official said a full reimbursement is “doubtful.”
The charter school, which was in its inaugural year, was ordered closed by Department of Education effective this week because of a lack of control over students and problems with staff, according to DOE spokesman Richard Vespucci.
At the Dec. 18 Princeton Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Judy Wilson cited the pending closure before announcing that the district is seeking $107,000 — of the $111,000 originally requested — from the charter school for tuition payments that were ultimately not used for Princeton students.
Those payments were made by the district based on the state mandate for local district to fund charter schools by an enrollment projection from July 1 to Oct. 15, Ms. Wilson said.
She noted that the state originally projected that 32 students would come from the district, and that number was later reduced to 16 after protests from the district.
However, only four Princeton students were enrolled at the start of the school year, with only one remaining as of Oct. 15, Ms. Wilson said, noting that that student has since been placed elsewhere.
Mr. Vespucci said the school is now “insolvent,” and its assets are being liquidated to be distributed among the districts that contributed to its tuition.
However, “it’s not likely that any person or organization will be fully reimbursed,” he said. “Some priority will be made in terms of who gets paid first.”
Some Princeton Board of Education members expressed the same doubt at the meeting last week.
Stating that the charter school is “literally bankrupt,” board member Joshua Leinsdorf, the board’s Finance Committee chairman, said he doesn’t think the district will ever be reimbursed.
”If you believe that, you might as well believe in Santa Claus,” he said.
Still, board member Alan Hegedus said the board will be discussing recourse.
”But we are not hopeful,” he said, noting that $100,000 “is a lot of money in today’s climate.”
Ms. Wilson said Wednesday that no further avenues of recourse have since been discussed.
The charter school, which offered a tuition-free music, dance and fine arts curriculum to public school students from districts throughout Mercer County, opened in Trenton this fall after considering sites in West Windsor and Ewing townships.
The school was approved for a maximum enrollment of 300 students in ninth and 10th grades during the first year, Mr. Vespucci said.
Before it opened, school Director Barbara Taylor said the school would increase its maximum enrollment to 600 students in grades nine through 12 after four years.
But enrollment plummeted — from approximately 220 in November to 130 in early December — after the school was placed on probation by the DOE after officials found a “very chaotic scene,” Mr. Vespucci said, citing a lack of control over students and teachers who were lacking in proper certification and who were different than those listed by the school at the start of the year.
Though the school was given 90 days to “correct deficiencies,” parents continued to pull their students out of the school, and the DOE “became convinced that the school would not be economically viable,” he said, noting that the charter was then revoked.
Although the revocation was planned to be effective earlier this week so students could transition to other schools, the charter school closed its door upon receiving the letter, Mr. Vespucci said.
All of the students have since been accommodated elsewhere, he said.

