By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Charter School and the Princeton Board of Education are in state court with both sides claiming the other violated New Jersey law related to government meetings, the latest salvos in a dispute about the proposed enrollment expansion of the Charter School that the school board wants to stop., Paul Josephson, president of the Charter School Board of Trustees, provided local media outlets with copies of court papers the school filed two weeks ago in State Superior Court claiming the Board violated the state’s Open Public meetings act by having an “unlawful” closed session meeting Dec.11 to discuss and determine a strategy to oppose the expansion plan., The Charter School alleged the meeting was illegal because the board never passed a resolution stating the “general nature” of what the meeting was about as required by the Open Public Meetings Act, the 1970s era “sunshine law” that town councils, school boards and other public bodies are bound by. As part of its argument, the Charter School contends the Princeton Board of Education has been ignoring that requirement for years., The actions that school officials took after that closed session – passing a resolution to have the district send a written objection to the expansion proposal to acting Education Commissioner Kim Harrington and then suing the Charter School claiming its board violated the same state law – should be thrown out by a state Superior Court judge, the Charter School contends. Harrington will decide the expansion request., For its part, the school board has sued the Charter School board of trustees claiming it violated the sunshine law when it acted to seek state approval to expand the school by 76 more pupils., Mr. Josephson could not be reached for comment Friday. He released a Feb.8 letter from the Charter School’s attorney to the school board’s attorney calling for the board’s lawsuit to be dropped in 28 days or else the Charter School would seek sanctions against the district for bringing a lawsuit that was “filed in bad faith and for an improper purpose.”, School Board President Patrick Sullivan said Friday that “everything” the district did was done properly and that officials believe that will be proved in court., The contretemps, involving a Charter School and a school board that have historically not gotten along, grew out of a request the Charter School made to the Christie administration to allow for 76 more pupils. If approved, the move would mean the school district – which already provides about $5 million a year to the 340-pupil Charter School – would have to provide an additional $1.16 million. Superintendent of Schools Stephen C Cochrane has said such a scenario would have “devastating” consequences on the district., The Charter School, a public school that admits students by lottery, contends it wants to enroll more low-income students and, as part of its application to the state, has proposed having a weighted lottery system so that more of those students can get in.
