SOUTH BRUNSWICK — After hours of discussion, with area residents voicing opinions both for and against the project, an application for a new charter school in South Brunswick was carried to June 2.
The proposed school, the Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS), is a 170-student capacity, duallanguage immersion school that would teach in both English and Mandarin Chinese. The school would service the South Brunswick, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Princeton school districts.
The applicant developer, 12P & Associates LLC, is looking to construct the school on an 11.79-acre site located at 12 Perrine Road in the township. The most recent meeting was held April 14.
The original application, which would’ve seen the school opened in Plainsboro for the 2010-2011 school year, was submitted in January 2010, but according to one of the PIACS founders, Parker Block, the school did not receive a certificate of occupancy in time.
In order for the school to open for the 2011-12 school year, as intended, the application would need to be approved by the June 30 deadline established by the New Jersey Department of Education.
Block said that even if the application was not approved at the next meeting, it could be possible for the DOE to give an extension, as they have previously. This would ensure that the charter school would not need to completely re-file all previously submitted paperwork.
The meeting, which stretched to after midnight, heard from both proponents and opponents of the charter school, though, as Zoning Board President Martin Hammer said, the comments did not necessarily pertain directly to land use.
“I believe that most of the reason that the public are out is to engage in a debate that is not appropriate for the Zoning Board at all, and that’s the general debate about the value and benefit of charter schools versus public schools,” he said. “The Zoning Board needs to remain focused on land use issues only. The Zoning Board has no jurisdiction in matters of education.”
Block agreed.
“The chairman of the Zoning Board did an excellent job of clarifying that point. Regardless of what people’s views are on the issue, he clarified that the Zoning Board has specific parameters within which they need to operate, and if the people wish to challenge the school on other grounds, there are other venues for doing so,” Block said.
The next hearing will be at 7:45 p.m. June 2.
Contact Sam Slaughter at [email protected].