SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Charter school hearing Thursday night

By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
   The Princeton International Academy Charter School is scheduled to be back in front of the Zoning Board of Adjustment tonight.
   According to officials, the meeting is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. at the Senior Center on Route 522.
   The proposed K-2 Mandarin immersion school is trying to open a facility at 12 Perrine Road that would serve 172 children from South Brunswick, Princeton and Plainsboro-West Windsor.
   Large audiences at past meetings have resulted in changing the location for the hearings to the senior center auditorium instead of the main meeting room in the Municipal Complex.
   The landlord of the school and applicant in front of the board, 12P & Associates, withdrew a previous application last summer and is now pursuing a new one in front of the panel.
   All three public school districts have openly opposed the proposed charter school .
   The controversy surrounding the school led to legal action last year between the charter and the districts.
   PIACS and several supportive parents filed a lawsuit against the districts charging them with using public funds inappropriately by paying for attorneys to block its application.
   An administrative law judge found in favor of the districts in August and determined that the districts were correct in using taxpayer funds to pay for legal expenses because of their respective interests for the communities they represent.
   That decision is being reviewed by Acting Commissioner Christopher Cerf.