By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The leaders of the Princeton Board of Education and the Charter School board of trustees are trying to broker a meeting so representatives of the two sides can try to resolve the simmering dispute about the Charter School’s enrollment expansion., School board President Patrick Sullivan said Friday that he had been in touch, by email, with his counterpart, Paul Josephson. Sullivan said he wants the meeting to come with no strings attached, and that whatever the two sides discuss privately can be shared with the public afterward., “They want a commitment from us that we’ll drop our lawsuits prior to agreeing to a meeting,” Sullivan said in reference to the court challenges the district brought against the expansion. “We stand ready to meet with them if they’re ready to meet with us, with no preconditions.”, For his part, Josephson has said his side has offered to meet with the district., “I think it’s pretty straightforward,” Josephson said Friday. “We’ve asked for serious negotiations with the district. We think anybody that’s serous about negotiations should have no problem agreeing that the negotiations will remain confidential until concluded and that both parties commit, in advance, that they intend to talk about a complete resolution.”, He said the Charter School has not asked the district to drop the litigation as a precondition for a meeting, but that it wants the lawsuit issue to be part of the negotiation., “You can’t resolve the issues between the district and the Charter School without resolving the lawsuit,” he said. “The framework of the discussion is what compromises are the Charter School prepared to make in return for the district dropping its lawsuits. Whether or not you favor the Charter School expansion, everyone should be able to agree that there should be a serious negotiation.”, Both sides are in court with each other. One option that’s been floated is for the Charter School to enroll fewer children than the 76 new students it was approved or to stagger the expansion over a longer period of time, for the district to drop its litigation., The timing comes with the district in a financial pinch. The proposed school budget calls for a 4.7 percent tax hike, fueled, in part, by the need to budget around $826,266 to cover the costs of the first batch of new students at Princeton Charter. The enrollment expansion is due to move in two phases, 54 new children this year, followed by 22 the next year., The clock is ticking. The deadline for parents to enter the enrollment lottery for Charter School admission is April 3, while the school board is due to adopt its budget April 26.
