Charter Schools: BOEs Get A Lesson

School leaders from four neighboring school districts gathered on Monday night to learn more about charter schools -- a divisive issue in New Jersey that now concerns high-performing districts like Livingston, where two Mandarin charters are seeking approval.

“It’s a storm and it’s a big storm now,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. “And it’s not a perfect storm.”

Strickland was part of a panel brought together at Millburn High School to provide school boards from Livingston, Millburn, Union, and South Orange-Maplewood with information to bring back to their communities.

Livingston will follow this meeting with a five-on-five with the Township Council next Monday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Livingston High School, said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brad Draeger.

The district has until the end of May to respond to the NJ Department of Education with concerns and questions about applications filed by two Mandarin charters: Hanyu International Academy Charter School and Hua Mei Charter School.

If approved, both would open in September 2012. Hanyu would accept students from Livingston, Millburn-Short Hills, and West Orange. The Hua Mei Charter School would draw from South Orange-Maplewood, Millburn, Union, West Orange, and Livingston, the applications say.

On Monday night, the questions by elected school officials focused on money and concern that the charters would funnel funds away from districts already dealing with diminishing budgets. 

That’s been the case in Princeton, where the Princeton Charter School has existed for the past 12 years, said Rebecca Cox, Princeton's school board president. The district will write a check for $4.5 million to cover the costs of the 340 students who attend the K-8 charter school, Cox said.

Last year, Princeton Regional Schools cut its world language program to pay the charter school bill. “There’s great irony in that and quite frankly it felt misguided,” said Superintendent Dr. Judy Wilson.

Local school leaders zeroed in on the financial impact. In Livingston, the figure is estimated at about $500,000 for the first year of a charter’s operation.

"When we're trying to cut where we can, this is adding costs. That is my biggest concern," said Millburn Superintendent James Crisfield after the forum.

The way it stands now, the school boards will not have a say in whether charters open in their districts. That will be the decision of the NJ Department of Education. But there is movement in the legislature to give local voters a choice.

Assemblyman Patrick Deignan (D), Chairman of the Education Committee, is expected to begin hearings later this month on bills that would give municipalities the right to vote on charter schools in their towns, Strickland said.

A non-profit advocacy group, Save Our Schools NJ, supports the . “We are not opposing charter schools,” Julia Sass Rubin told reporters after the meeting. “We’re opposing the way charter schools are authorized and held accountable. The community should have a say in what they do.”

Gov. Chris Christie has pushed to expand charter schools and his administration this year approved 23 new charters, bringing to 97 the total number statewide. The charters proposed for Livingston would offer bilingual immersion, meaning up to 50 percent of instruction would be taught in Mandarin.

About 100 people attended the meeting in Millburn, a mix of board members, community residents, and advocates on both sides of the issue.

Bill Gaudelli, newly elected to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education, asked if there was “any wisdom” in bringing into the current curriculum the bilingual immersion the proposed charters would offer. (Livingston offers Mandarin beginning in 7th grade).

“You can’t yield to every small group’s desires,” said Wilson, the Princeton superintendent. “This year it’s Mandarin,” Cox added. “Next year it could be Gaelic, ceramics or bagpipes. You don’t know where it would stop.”

The forum also elicited opinions on inclusion and diversity in charter schools and oversight, all with poor track records in New Jersey, Princeton’s school leaders said.

It’s a view contested by the New Jersey Charter Schools Association. After the forum, Carlos Perez, the group’s president and CEO, said that because the charter school community was not represented on the panel, the audience did not get a full or completely accurate picture of charter schools.

“In other districts, the issue of the appropriateness of charter schools has fractured the community,” observed Barry Funt, newly elected to the Livingston Board of Education.

Reading from prepared remarks at the board’s meeting earlier Monday night, Funt said, “We need to lead the way and set an appropriately civil tone for this debate. Those who support charter schools are not our enemies.”

Laura Griffin, editor of Millburn Patch, contributed reporting.