By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
RED BANK — Residents expressed anger over the charter school officials remaining silent during a press conference aimed at explaining a change in their enrollment expansion proposal.
“It is indecent that [the principal of the charter school] and every member of the Board of Trustees has refused to comment on anything that has been said tonight,” said borough resident Steven Hecht at the end of the event.
In what was billed as a press conference on Feb. 2, officials at the Red Bank Charter School (RBSC) announced that they were amending their enrollment expansion application, which seeks to double their student population to 400 by the 2018-2019 school year.
The amendment would have 60 new students introduced in the first year of the expansion, 60 in the second year and 80 in the final year.
Original plans called for 120 students added the first year, with another 40 during the second and another 40 in the third year.
“The Board of Trustees believe a slower rollout is in the best interest of the children of Red Bank. We believe the change is necessary to make the adjustment more manageable while providing public school choice for Red Bank students and families given that the school is consistently at maximum enrollment with a persistent wait list,” the RBCS outlined in a press release read by RBCS Board of Trustees member Roger Foss to a packed audience at the school’s STEM lab at 135 Monmouth St.
The proposal to expand enrollment is expected to be either approved or denied by the Commissioner of Education, David Hespe, this month.
All questions posed by reporters after the event were taken by Kevin King, volunteer spokesperson for RBCS. Neither Meredith Pennotti, RBCS principal, or the school’s Board of Trustees fielded questions.
“We wanted this to be an open forum for people from the community to talk — that was the idea behind this,” King said.
“I think this is an opportunity for people to say what they wanted to say. I think our information has been provided in the expansion application,” King continued, replying to why RBCS officials did not reply to comments.
King also said there were no talks about rescinding the proposed expansion proposal.
The news about the change of the amendment was overshadowed by several parents and teachers asking charter school officials to voluntarily withdraw the application.
“This expansion is wrong. It is civilly wrong … and in my opinion, it is financially insane because we cannot afford it,” said Marybeth Maida, whose children graduated from the district’s non-charter schools.
Ben Forest, a member of the Red Bank Board of Education speaking on his own behalf, spoke about the harmful impact the expansion would have on the non-charter schools.
“The town of Count Basie — our public schools — should have a music program. We should have sports. Unfortunately, the way things fall out is that the expansion comes literally at the expense of the regular public schools financially,” said Forest, who also addressed possible cuts to as many as 25 staff members should the proposal go through.
“This is the unfortunate thing here — we are angry at each other, but actually it’s the state not funding the schools properly that is really the problem … with all due respect and love and passion and everything else, please withdraw this voluntarily and do the right thing,” Forest said.
Since the charter school petitioned the state to expand its enrollment, multiple groups within the borough have stepped up to oppose it.
At the end of January, the Blue Ribbon Commission, appointed by Mayor Pasquale Menna, sent a letter to Hespe asking him to deny the expansion proposal, citing a harmful financial impact on borough taxpayers as well as the charter school’s demographics poorly reflecting the town.
Michael Stasi, who was a founding member of the RBCS and member of the commission, did not agree with the commission’s findings and wrote his own dissenting opinion to Hespe.
According to Carrie Ludwikowski, president of the Red Bank Board of Education, multiple politicians, such as State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling and Assemblywoman Joann Downy, and organizations, such as Count Basie Theatre, The Latino American Association, The Latino Action Network, The Latino Coalition of New Jersey, Monmouth Day Care Center, Project Write Now and the Red Bank chapter of the NAACP, have written letters in support of the non-charter schools. Their comments were included in the district’s formal opposition to the expansion sent to the Commissioner of Education.
The Rev. Zaniel Young of the Westside Ministerial Alliance also spoke at the event, speaking out against the demographic difference between the two schools.
“It’s the position of the alliance that the charter [school] has always and continues to enroll a student body that poorly represents the minority and economically disadvantaged students,” said Young, referencing the Blue Ribbon Commission’s findings that 52 percent of the charter school is white, 4 percent limited-English proficient and 40 percent economically disadvantaged, compared to the Red Bank Middle and Primary schools, which have 7 percent white students, 44 percent limited-English proficient and 88 percent economically disadvantaged.
“This stark difference in the demographics of the charter school and the Red Bank Borough schools [is] extremely troubling to the alliance as it would appear that there is a system of segregated education in the borough,” said Young, noting that the charter school’s proposal to include a weighted lottery, which the proposal says would benefit economically disadvantaged students, would only “worsen segregation.”
According to King, the charter school accurately represents the demographics of school-age children in the borough.
“I will tell you that the population of the charter school very closely mirrors the demographics of the town,” he said to reporters when asked about the demographic difference between the charter and non-charter district schools.
The RBCS’s position that its enrollment reflects the demographics of the borough has been contested by by the Red Bank Borough Public Schools.
“The Red Bank Charter School’s claim that its demographics accurately reflect the school aged population of Red Bank Borough is completely false,” stated the district in a press release.
Diana Archila, a bilingual instructor assistant at the Red Bank Middle School, whose children attend the charter school, has been stuck in the middle of this debate.
“I am stuck in the middle, and it’s so difficult … I just want to say that I’m the first charter parent to ask Mrs. Pennotti to pull the expansion,” Archila said.
Some members of the audience spoke in favor of the charter school’s expansion, explaining that it would help increase competition between the schools and give more parents the ability to choose which school they want to send their children to.
“Competition is a good thing. It makes people work, and it makes people want to be better than the other,” said Memone Crystian, former Borough Parks and Recreation director.
“I do support the expansion, and as a whole, the conversation has to be if taxes have to go up, where can we cut the fat?” said Crystian.
Cristie Ritz-King, a member of the RBCS Board of Trustees, speaking on her own behalf during the public comment portion, explained that it would give more parents the opportunity to choose where to send their children.
“Right now, we are too small to allow that to happen,” she said.