By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
RED BANK — Devastating to taxpayers and students.
That was the message that Superintendent of Schools Jared Rumage wanted to communicate to attendees at the open public forum Jan. 22 where he presented information showing the effects of a proposed doubling of Red Bank Charter School’s (RBCS) enrollment.
“Expansion of the charter school. It’s bad for taxpayers. It’s bad for Red Bank Borough public schools, and I think it’s bad for the charter school. It will increase taxes [and] result in devastating cuts at the Red Bank Primary School and the Red Bank Middle School. I believe it will compromise the current quality of education at the Red Bank Charter School. I see it as a lose-lose-lose,” Rumage said to an estimated crowd of 300 people at the middle school auditorium.
The event was attended by parents, students and teachers as well as members of the mayor’s blue ribbon committee, which was tasked earlier this month with studying the possible effects of the charter school’s expansion from 200 to 400 students by the 2018-2019 school year.
Rumage estimated that if the expansion is approved, the public schools, which already give the charter school $1.67 million a year, would have a $2 million shortfall that would have to be made up for by cutting extracurricular programs and staff.
The New Jersey Education Commissioner, David Hespe, is expected to make a decision in February on the charter school’s proposal, which was submitted Dec. 1.
Rumage told the public that Red Bank’s public schools are closing the achievement gap with the charter school. He also touched on the ethnic disparity between the two.
According to his presentation, there are 1,407 students at the public school with an ethnic makeup of 7 percent white, 80 percent Hispanic and 10 percent black.
At the charter school, the presentation showed, out of around 200 students, 52 percent are white, 34 percent are Hispanic and 12 percent are black.
“Red Bank is viewed as a hip town with a sophisticated culture. How can we support being home to the most segregated school district in New Jersey,” he said.
State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) spoke at the forum, telling the audience that out of the 611 school districts in the state, 143 are more than 10 percent below the funding standard they should be at.
“Red Bank exceeds that number and we’re 37 percent below what the state says we should be paying per student for their education,” Beck commented, also mentioning that she had been in communication with Hespe over the expansion proposal.
“The expansion cannot move forward unless the state of New Jersey and the commissioner of the Department of Education are going to fully fund the borough of Red Bank’s school district,” she continued.
On Jan 15, Beck sent a letter to Gov. Chris Christie, writing that either the expansion request of RBCS be rejected or the state increase its funding of Red Bank’s public schools.
Beck’s support was a welcome sign to members of the community who oppose the charter school’s expansion.
“State senators carry a lot of weight. Two years ago, a charter school in Florence Township withdrew their application on the day that the local state senator said that she opposed it,” Wayne Woolley said, who has two daughters in the district schools.
“People shouldn’t be this upset in this town. We don’t have a problem with the charter school,” he continued.
“We can’t afford for it to get any bigger.”
The forum was originally billed as having both the RBCS and the borough’s non-charter school. Earlier in the week, Meredith Pennotti, principal of the charter school, announced that she would not be attending the event.
“We accept the [blue ribbon committee’s] responsibility to objectively and thorough analyze both district and charter school positions based upon the facts. This will require thoughtful process, and we therefore, feel that a meeting on [Jan 22] would not afford the committee to properly and appropriately put forth its finding,” read a letter that was sent by the charter school before the event to the mayor and members of the blue ribbon committee.
“Given the short time frame and complexity of school budgets, we strongly believe that the committee members require more time in closed session to objectively review the data as presented by each side,” the letter continued, stating that this would allow for the committee to analyze the issue without “outside pressure.”
RBCS would be represented at a public forum once the committee finished compiling its report.
The charter school held its own presentation on Jan. 20 for parents of charter school students.
“The RBCS parent community gathering was a “Fact Forum” to better understand financial and tax data, and other aspects of expansion implications after a thorough review and assessment on the Red Bank Borough tax levy and transfer to Red Bank Charter School analysis by our business administrator, David Block. Input to the discussion also included financial consultants experienced in public and charter school funding, and representatives from the New Jersey Charter Association,” Teicia Gaupp, communications officer for RBCS, said.
“It was a packed house, and RBCS parents had an opportunity to ask outstanding questions related to why the time is right for RBCS to expand,” Gaupp said.
According to information presented at the charter school’s forum, there is no correlation between the RBCS and rising taxes.
While both sides in this district debate hold their ground, some parents are in the middle and have yet to be swayed by either side.
“In truth, I would say there is still a lot of confusion in terms of what the ultimate finial impact is going to be. I don’t think there is any one body that has clearly identified what’s going to happen and how it will impact the town,” Steve Ansell, who has two children who attend the charter school, said. Having also listened to the charter school’s presentation on Wednesday and the public forum on Friday, he was not yet ready to make a decision on which side to support.
“Both have done a reasonably good job putting their cases forward. This one basically saying the taxes will rise in a fairly vague way and the charter school putting their case forward said that taxes won’t go up in a very detailed way. I’m sure there have been number crunches that have went through both scenarios and have come up with what they believe are valid outcomes, but until I see someone who is a certified accountant go through and prove that one scenario is going to happen versus the other, I am still undecided,” Ansell said.