By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
RED BANK—With a decision from the state looming on doubling the enrollment at the Red Bank Charter School (RBCS), representatives of the school met with reporters to answer questions about the possible impact of that decision.
After weeks of debate, reports and public forums, RBCS officials invited area media to question them about the expansion proposal on Feb. 10. Their request would increase the student body to 400 over three years.
Roger Foss, vice president of the RBCS Board of Trustees, along with Principal Meredith Pennotti and Business Administrator David Block, hit back at claims of segregation between the charter school and other Red Bank public schools, as well as financial difficulties the district could face if the charter school expands.
State Commissioner of Education David Hespe is expected to make a decision regarding RBCS expansion toward the end of this month.
After being accused by Mayor Pasquale Menna’s Blue Ribbon Commission, as well as the Red Bank School District Board of Education of deepening racial segregation in the borough’s schools, RBCS officials said the debate was put to rest more than a decade ago.
“It has all been said before, and it has all been ruled on before,” Foss said, referring to a 2004 Appellate Court decision that allowed the charter school’s enrollment expansion in 2001.
According to officials at the charter school, it is not the ethnic makeup of the RBCS student population that needs attention, but the economic makeup.
According to Pennotti, a weighted lottery would provide students who are considered to be “economically disadvantaged” with an increased opportunity to make it into the RBCS.
“[The weighted lottery] gives us a chance to do that and respond to the population of Red Bank not as we know it by any data, because the data is too old, but how we observe it,” she said.
Children considered “economically disadvantaged” would be given three bingo balls during the charter school’s enrollment lottery, while other students would be given two bingo balls.
“This is not about ethnicity, it is about the economically disadvantaged,” Pennotti said.
She also said an increased enrollment at the charter school might be able to help with the population expansion seen at Red Bank’s other public schools.
“We are hearing at board meeting after board meeting how the population is expanding. This overcrowding and the need to start addressing a possible building referendum and the tax levy that would go with it. This could help to alleviate some of the burden for the taxpayer,” Pennotti said.
The district’s non-charter schools currently enroll more than 1,400 students.
According to information presented by Superintendent of Schools Jared Rumage at a public forum held on Jan. 22, if 200 students move from the district’s non-charter schools to the RBCS, it would still have a devastating impact on the school district.
“Worst case scenario, if all the students who transfer into the charter school as a result of this expansion come from our public schools, we will have a shortfall in excess of $2 million,” Rumage said. That amount, she said, could cut the staff by 25 teachers. Increased class sizes, as well as programs such as athletics and music, would be on the chopping block to make up for the reduced funds.
While the charter school contends it reflects the demographics of the school-age children in the district, information from the Red Bank Board of Education shows otherwise.
According to data provided by the school district, out of the total school-age children, 19 percent are white; 69 percent, Hispanic; and 9 percent, African-American.
At the Red Bank Charter School, 52 percent of the student body are white; 34 percent, Hispanic; and 12 percent, African-American.
At the Red Bank Middle School and the Red Bank Primary School, 7 percent of the population are white; 79 percent, Hispanic; and 9 percent, African-American.
When it comes to “economically disadvantaged” students, the data indicates that 76 percent of school-age children in the district fall into that category. At the charter school, 40 percent of students fall into that category, while at the other district schools that number is 88 percent.
“They (the charter school) don’t represent the school-age population, they are not even close,” Rumage said.
With regard to the case referenced by RBCS representatives during the press conference, Rumage said the demographic differences between the two schools have grown more disparate in the decade since the Appellate Court decision.
The Blue Ribbon Commission last month concluded that the Red Bank School District is the most segregated school district in New Jersey and that the proposed charter school expansion would have a negative impact on taxpayers and the district schools.
The commission referenced Rumage’s comments that the expansion would force the school district to use its tax levy ceiling of 5.23 percent.
One member of the seven-member commission, Michael Stasi, who is a founding member of the charter school, disagreed with its findings.
The RBCS contends its enrollment has no impact on taxpayers. According to information from the charter school, payment to the school from the district has decreased over the past six years, while district taxes increased by 37 percent during the same period.
Officials also answered why discussions to submit the application were not made public sooner.
“No charter school deliberates this in the public before they submit an application or it would be suicidal. We are by definition controversial, and we know that,” Pennotti said. “These are governance-level decisions. They are hard decisions among the people who are responsible for the big picture.”
According to Foss, the formal resolution to file an enrollment application with the state was voted on at the November meeting of the Board of Trustees.
According to Block, the resolution was an addendum to the agenda for that month’s meeting.
“It (the resolution) was added after the agenda, to the point known at the time, (was) advertised. It was added on after that. Consequentially, it did not go on the original agenda which was distributed,” Block said.