POLL: Do Charter Schools Have a Lasting Place in Middlesex County?

How have charter schools affected Middlesex County?

Middlesex County has a selection of charter schools currently operating, including Greater Brunswick Charter School in New Brunswick, Academy for Urban Leadership Charter School in Perth Amboy, and East Brunswick's Hatikvah International Academy Charter School. Hatikvah, a Hebrew dual-language school, has been renting space behind the Trinity Presbyterian Church on Cranbury Road since it opened in 2010. Before it opened its doors it met resistance from the school district. But in 2011, a decision by the State Superior Court Appellate Division put the issue to rest by saying that the district's final appeal, which was based on enrollment, didn't hold up. Located in two trailers, the school has recently had trouble with a growing enrollment…

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DOE Blocks One Charter, But More May Be Coming

State refuses to let controversial Cherry Hill charter open this fall.

With the Christie administration last week blocking one controversial charter school from opening, New Jersey’s charters are once again in the spotlight. Adding to that high-wattage scrutiny is the suggestion that the state this summer will expand the size and scope of the charter movement. In a late Friday release, the state Department of Education announced it would not allow the Regis Academy Charter School to open this fall in Cherry Hill. It cited the lack of viable facilities, as well as questions about the veracity of the school's application.     It was a significant decision, quieting for now what is the latest argument about charters moving into suburban communities. The Cherry Hill school district had appealed the approval on …

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Charter School Panel to be Held Tonight in Highland Park

Save Our Schools NJ and the Education Law Center will host a panel discussing charters at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bartle School in Highland Park.

Editor's Note: The following information is a press release from Speak Up Highland Park. Save Our Schools New Jersey, Speak Up Highland Park and Education Law Center are jointly sponsoring a panel discussion titled The Promise, the Evidence, and the Politics of Charter Schools in New Jersey.  The event, which is open to the public, will be held on Tuesday, April 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bartle School, 435 Mansfield Ave. in Highland Park.      The panel will include:

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Education Chief Sides With Districts Battling Boutique Charter School

Christie Administration clashes with some charter schools.

While promoting charter schools in public, the Christie administration has found itself at odds with them on the legal front, as it rebuffed one school’s legal challenge this week and started preparing for another.     Acting education commissioner Chris Cerf this week released his opinion against a challenge from a Mandarin-language school that had sued three local districts for their ongoing efforts against the school opening. The Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS), approved by the state two years ago, maintained that the districts - Princeton Regional, South Brunswick and West Windsor-Plainsboro - had unlawfully used taxpayer funds to contest the school before zoning boards, as well as in lobbying and other efforts. …

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Supreme Court Won't Hear District's Appeal of Hatikvah Decision

The school board was trying to appeal an Appellate Court decision made in December.

The New Jersey Supreme Court said last week that it would not hear an East Brunswick Board of Education appeal regarding the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School. District officials filed documents in Appellate Court in April seeking to overturn former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler’s decision to approve the school because it did not meet enrollment requirements at the time. In December, the court said the school met all enrollment requirements before opening in 2010 and that subsequent dips in enrollment before the actual opening were not grounds to revoke the charter. The district attempted to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, but on March 26, the court rejected the petition for appeal. "While the board has not …

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Court Says 'Yes' to Hatikvah

The Appellate Court said the school did meet enrollment requirements before it opened.

A decision by the State Superior Court Appellate Division Monday says the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School met all enrollment requirements before opening in 2010. District officials filed documents in Appellate Court in April seeking to overturn former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler’s decision to approve the school because it did not meet enrollment requirements at the time. According to school district attorney Matthew Giacobbe, state Department of Education regulations require that a charter school meet 90 percent of its expected enrollment by July 1 of the year it opens. According to the decision, the school board was urging the court “to revoke Hatikvah's charter and remand the matter to the Commissioner to set a …

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To the Editor

Letter to the Editor: PIACS responds to charter schools debate

A letter from Parker Block, spokesperson for the Mandarin-immersion charter school.

Editor's note: Patch recently published a series of articles examining the role of charter schools in well-performing suburban school districts. Parker Block, a co- founder of the Princeton International Academy Charter School (www.piacs.org), sent us the following response: As the current debate about charter schools in urban and suburban districts unfolds, it is important to recognize that charter schools are intended to be laboratories of innovation that provide, according to the Charter School Program Act, “a mechanism for the implementation of a variety of educational approaches which may not be available in the traditional public school classroom.” It is common and understandable for school districts to find innovation too difficult …

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East Brunswick Challenging Charter School

The school district is moving ahead with a challenge to the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School.

Tensions over the growing number of dual-language charter schools are playing out before various local boards around the state but, in East Brunswick, the battle has moved to a new venue. The East Brunswick school board is suing to challenge the original state approval for the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School should not have given, and that the school has failed to meet the state's requirements for the school. Hatikvah is one of a growing number of dual-language schools in the state that have met local opposition. In neighboring South Brunswick, hundreds turned out for a zoning board meeting to challenge an attempt to open a three-district Mandarin-English school seeking to open in a warehouse building there. Hatikvah created …

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Kevin Wyman

8:08 am on Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Mr Perez, are you the same Carlos Perez who is the executive director of the NJ Charter School Association? If so, I (and I believe alot of other "regular taxpayers"also) would appreciate it if you do not post here the usual "spin" numbers regarding how great Charter Schools appear to be. You clearly have an agenda in doing so and I mean no disrespect for your opinion on the subject, but your …   more ›