Princeton Reacts to Charter School Extension Request

Princeton schools officials are reacting to news that the Princeton International Academy Charter School has requested a third planning year from the state department of education.

"To ask for a third year is highly unusual,” Superintendent Judy Wilson said.

“I think after two strong attempts with a lot of resources including state taxpayer dollars, there should be many questions raised about the probability that this (additional year) would be a repeat of the last two years," Wilson said. 

PIACS officials, in a June 30 letter to Acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf, said the school was unable to meet a June 30 deadline to complete its documentation and would not open in September. 

Residents opposed to PIACS say the school is diverting money from high-performing school districts, is a way to publicly fund a private school and have raised concerns about its proposed health and safety procedures.

Wilson said she wasn’t surprised by PIACS’ request and hopes the state will consider the issues raised by residents of the sending school districts.

“Three communities have had to put a lot of time and effort and resources into assuring that whatever charter opens it will be safe and will deliver curriculum as advertised and have the resources necessary to serve the children better than the home communities,” Wilson said. “At this point, heading into third round of this seems absurd to me.”

Timothy Quinn, vice chair of the Princeton Board of Education, said
although he is not speaking on behalf of the board, he is personally
concerned because he doesn’t believe any charter school has ever been granted a third planning year by the state. 

“Typically charter schools are given tax dollars through the state for
startup costs,” Quinn said. “I’m not sure if a third year would bring
with it more state start-up costs at a time when we’re told to cut
back on everything. Is this really a good use of state tax dollars?
And how many more years do they get?"

He said the Mandarin-immersion school has been given ample opportunity to open.

During PIACS appearances before the South Brunswick zoning board, school officials appeared unable to answer basic questions about student safety, he said.

“We as the Board of Education are responsible for kids we send to the
school,” Quinn said. “Too many times they (PIACS officials) seemed
short on answers, specifically about how many nurses would be on site and when they would be there. These are things that in two years you would be able to figure out.”