SOUTH BRUNSWICK: DOE: PIACS denied final state charter

By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
   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,” Princeton Superintendent Dr. Judith Wilson said 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 would 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 in the township.
   Although the 5-4 vote favored the applicant, 12P & Associates, six votes were needed to grant the school relief, according to board President Martin Hammer.
   The school was dealt another significant 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 zoning hearings on the proposed school, many in the audience cheering and applauding the board’s decision to deny the application.
   One member of the panel representing the school was visibly shaken and crying after the vote.
   School spokesman Parker Block could not be reached for comment as of press time, but said following the earlier zoning board meeting that he was disappointed with that decision and that the proposed school would have to re-evaluate its position.
   He also said that several parents supporting the school were investing their own money to help with the cost of the hearings and getting the school up and running.
   South Brunswick Superintendent Dr. Gary McCartney was also not available for comment Wednesday, but said previously that the district could not afford to lose the $350,000 it would pay the charter school to serve 35 students in that district.
   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,” Ms. Kniewel 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.”
   If it opened, the school would serve 170 students in grades K-2 from all three districts. It planned to expand by one grade a year through fifth grade, according to PIACS officials.