The East Brunswick Board of Education urged the New Jersey Commissioner of Education to reject the proposed expansion of Hatikvah International Academy Charter School.
During the Dec. 3 board meeting, members voted unanimously to pass a resolution stating their opposition to Hatikvah increasing its enrollment.
“One of the issues we have at hand is that in addition to the financial resources that are taken from this district, which are significant, that we offer the same educational programming with the exception of immersion Hebrew,” said East Brunswick Superintendent of Schools Victor Valeski.
We’re asking the commissioner at this point to reject the amendment because Hatikvah is not operating as a single district charter school.”
On Nov. 10, Hatikvah requested the commissioner approve an increase in its K- 8 enrollment from 450 to 675 students by the 2024 school year.
According to Dr. Marcia Grayson, the director of Hatikvah, the expansion is necessary due to more students wanting to attend the school.
“Year after year, many more students have sought to enroll at our school than current space allows. This expansion will provide children with the opportunity to study at a school where they want to enroll but currently cannot because of space constraints,” she said.
According to Board President Brad Cohen, the issue is that Hatikvah and a large portion of the charter school’s enrollment comes from outside the district.
“The problem is that it’s considered an East Brunswick charter and less than 50 percent of the kids that go there are from East Brunswick,” said Cohen, saying that much of the school’s enrollment comes from districts that do not border East Brunswick.
According to the East Brunswick Board of Education, since October, Hatikvah had an estimated enrollment of 335 students from 27 districts. Included in that number are 168 students who are residents of East Brunswick. Contiguous, or neighboring, districts send 57 students to the charter school.
One-third, or 110, of the students enrolled come from non-contiguous districts, which include districts from Monmouth, Mercer, Somerset, Essex and Union counties.
The district, according to Board President Brad Cohen, is charged for every student that attends the charter school whether or not they live in the district.
As the year goes on, the district receives a credit for students who attend Hatikvah who are not residents of the township.
“Because East Brunswick is the local school district, we get a number each year indicating the number of kids that are enrolled at Hatikvah Charter School. It’s only as the year goes on does the state reconcile how many kids are actually coming from East Brunswick and how many are coming from districts outside of East Brunswick and then they reassess,” Cohen said.
“For example. if they [Hatikvah] said we have 100 kids that have enrolled this year we’ll be charged for 100 kids. Then the state will figure out since 50 of them are from East Brunswick then we’ll get a credit back and the other districts that those kids are coming from will get charged.”
According to Cohen, the charter school receives 90 percent of a student’s per-pupil cost from the student’s home district, which at times can be different depending on the district.
“If the district’s per-pupil cost is different in Highland Park [which] is different than it is here they can be getting different values coming in per student,” he said.
According to information given by the East Brunswick Board of Education, the district’s state-mandated obligation to Hatikvah for the 2015 financial year was $2.3 million, up around $400,000 from the previous year.
“It’s extraordinarily unfair to the residents of East Brunswick who are footing a large part of this bill and are responsible for that payment,” said Cohen.
According to Assistant Superintendent Evelyn Ogden, having to provide funding to Hatikvah leads to making cuts in the district’s public schools.
“That first year [Hatikvah opened] we had to cancel our world language programs, of which we had the state model in elementary world language. We had to eliminate teaching positions because all of a sudden the state just told us to pay,” she said.
Since then, the district has been able to bring back its world language program.
The district has challenged Hatikvah in the past when it looked to expand enrollment.
In March, the New Jersey Commissioner of Education approved a proposal to allow Hatikvah to expand grade levels from K-5 to K-8 as well as its enrollment from 300 to 450 students by 2019.
The charter school first opened in September 2010.
Contact Michael Nunes at mnunes@gmnews.com.