PRINCETON AREA: Charter school denied final state charter

By Charles W. Kim, Packet Media Group
   The battle between three public school districts and a proposed Mandarin charter school appears to be over.
   State Department of Education officials announced Monday that the Princeton International Academy Charter School would not be given an additional planning year and that its final charter would not be granted by the state.
   ”It was a sound decision,” said Princeton School Superintendent Judith Wilson on Wednesday. “A lot of time and state dollars were spent and PIACS was not able to meet the (state) standards in preparation.”
   The proposed K-2 Mandarin immersion school wanted to serve 170 students from three public school districts.
   Those districts — Princeton, South Brunswick and West Windsor-Plainsboro — joined forces during the last couple of years to fight the proposed school from opening, even sharing the cost of an attorney during several Zoning Board of Adjustment hearings in South Brunswick.
   Earlier this year, that board denied a waiver for the planned charter school to open at a facility on Perrine Road.
   The school was dealt another blow this year when an administrative law judge and Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf dismissed a suit brought against the districts by several parents supporting the school.
   The suit alleged that the districts were improperly using tax money to pay for the attorney at the zoning hearings and that members of the three boards of education were improperly commenting on the planned charter school in media reports.
   Both the judge and Mr. Cerf decided that the three districts were within the law to take such actions because the school would be serving students from those districts.
   The ruling also held that board members could comment individually about the school.
   A land use board in Plainsboro initially turned down PIACS before it applied for the site in South Brunswick.
   More than 100 residents attended the last several South Brunswick zoning hearings on the proposed school, many in the audience cheering and applauding the board’s decision to deny the application.
   School spokesman Parker Block could not be reached for comment as of press time, but said after the earlier zoning board meeting that he was disappointed with that decision and that the proposed school would have to re-evaluate its position.
   South Brunswick Superintendent Gary McCartney was also not available for comment Wednesday.
   West Windsor–Plainsboro Superintendent Victoria Kniewel said she is glad the money will stay in her district.
   ”As a result of the decision by the New Jersey Department of Education, we are pleased that the funding approved by the taxpayers in West Windsor and Plainsboro Townships will stay in the district,” she said. “The opening of PIACS would have duplicated existing programs offered in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District and other Mercer County public school districts. PIACS would not be able to offer the rigor and breadth of the academic program nor the comprehensive athletics and co-curricular programs provided to the students in our district.”