By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Charter School saw a surge in families from town trying to have their children admitted for September, despite a barrage of criticism by the Princeton school district and others against a school often seen as a lighting rod within the community., In the enrollment lottery held Wednesday, 320 children were vying for 96 slots in the upcoming academic year; the figure did not include the 91 children from outside of Princeton who tried to get into the lottery but were not included, charter school officials reported., The number of lottery participants, believed to be a record amount, was well above recent trends, according to the school. The five-year-average is 262 kids, with 260 children in the lottery last year., “There was a lot of outreach this year,” said Charter School Board president Paul Josephson by phone Thursday., Overall, 9.4 percent of the 96 children are low income, meaning they qualify for government subsidized school meals, get government assistance and live in public and Section 8 housing. The Charter School had sought to have a more diverse student body, including an outreach to Princeton’s Latino community., Part of the effort included advertising with a Spanish language publication, which also sent an email about information sessions at the school. It stated, incorrectly, that Latino children would have preference in the lottery, something Charter School officials clarified this week., “The publication’s email contained incorrect eligibility information and other statements that are inconsistent with all official PCS recruiting materials and messages. We will be sure to correct this error in all future communications with interested parents of prospective students,” head of school Lawrence Patton wrote Monday in an email that the Princeton Packet and others were copied on. “We apologize for any inconvenience this communication may have caused.”, The children who won the lottery Wednesday also included the first batch of new students entering Princeton Charter through the enrollment expansion that acting State Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington recently had approved., The first phase consists of 54 students for September, followed by 22 for next year. As part of its diversity efforts, the school had a weighted lottery for low -income students., Asked what kind of message the size of the participation in the lottery sent to critics of the school, Josephson avoided any victory dance., “The results speak for themselves,” he said., Yet he and the Charter School have been embroiled in a legal battle with the Princeton Board of Education, which is challenging Harrington’s decision and alleging the Charter School board had violated the state “Sunshine Law” for open public meetings. District officials have lamented the cost of adding 76 students, with an additional $1.16 million the district will have to provide each year to Princeton Charter., At a school board meeting last week, former school board member Molly Chrein offered her support to board members to keep up the fight and take “whatever legal measures you need to take to prevent this expansion.”, There has been talk of the school board and the Charter School board negotiating a solution to the issue, potentially for the Charter to admit fewer than the 76 students that the state had approved or stagger the expansion across a longer period of time., “If they have a proposal, they should tell the community what their proposal is and why they’re making it,” school board President Patrick Sullivan said by phone Thursday., Josephson said the “door is not entirely closed” to talks, but he said it would be “impossible” to pull back the admission to the 54 students for September., The enrollment expansion at the Charter School remains a flashpoint for criticism, in a community where even the town government stepped outside its usual purview to urge Harrington to deny the request. Mayor Liz Lempert, a co-founder of an organization critical of charter schools, Save our Schools NJ, is among those against the expansion., “I was directing my comments, on behalf of all the residents I heard from, to the acting commissioner,” said Mayor Lempert when asked Monday if she thought families were wrong to be in the lottery. “I wasn’t making my comments toward any of the residents in this community.”
