By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The state’s top education official this week defended her decision to allow the Princeton Charter School to expand its enrollment, in rejecting arguments by the Princeton School Board for why she should put her ruling on hold.
Acting state Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington, in a seven-page letter Monday, denied the school district’s request for a stay of her Feb. 28 decision, a measure the district was seeking pending its lawsuit in state Appeals Court to overturn the expansion approval.
In the letter, she said the board "is not likely to prevail on the merits of its appeal" of her decision to let the Charter School phase in 76 more students, spread across two years. Later, she said her ruling was "not arbitrary or capricious," one she based on a series of factors.
"My decision to approve (Princeton Charter School’s) application was specifically informed by a review of student performance on statewide assessments, operational stability, fiscal viability, public comment and fiscal impact on sending districts," she wrote to lawyers in the case.
Harrington said there is "a strong community demand for additional enrollment slots," even though the district and its allied whipped up opposition to the expansion.
District officials have warned of the extra money that will have to come out of the school budget, some $1.1 million a year, to support the increase. But Harrington noted that Princeton is the "fifth-highest spending district" in New Jersey "for a district of its size," at about $24,000 per pupil cost compared to the state average of $19,000.
She said the enrollment expansion "will only result in a two-percent reduction in the Board’s budget through 2022."
The Charter School welcomed Harrington’s ruling this week. Board chairman Paul Josephson on Wednesday called it "a pretty comprehensive rejection of the district’s arguments."
For its part, the school board will push ahead with its legal fight.
"We’re going to continue our pursuing it through the courts, so we’re not going to appeal her decision," school board President Patrick Sullivan said Tuesday. "She’s a political appointee of a Republican governor, so she’s not likely to overrule herself."
