The Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS) will not open in its proposed South Brunswick location this September.
PIACS has requested that its application before the South Brunswick Zoning Board for a use variance for the site be adjourned until September, confirmed Ron Schmalz, South Brunswick’s spokesman.
“Since it is clear that the 12 Perrine Road facility will not be ready to use for September, 2011, but it is still the location that would best serve PIACS long-term, we explained to the applicant that it is best for them to make sure everything is well prepared rather than rush it for the next zoning meeting,” said PIACS spokesman Parker Block. “So the applicant elected to postpone to make sure the experts were afforded enough time to adequately prepare.”
Earlier this month, the hearing on the application for the charter school at the South Brunswick Zoning Board was continued until Thursday, July 7 — about a week before the school needed to meet a state deadline for obtaining a certificate of occupancy.
As a result of the tight deadline, PIACS officials believed the school would not open in South Brunswick in September, although they were looking at other locations in the Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro area that would not require zoning approval.
“The course for PIACS going forward is under discussion,” said Block. “One option is to request a planning year extension.”
In the meantime, an online petition has garnered more than 1,200 signatures of PIACS opponents, who are calling for the state to turn down PIACS’ application for a new charter.
As of June 21, the petition had 1,215 online signatures on its website: www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-piacs. The online petition reads: “As residents of South Brunswick, Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro school districts, we ask that you take into account widespread community opposition and turn down any applications for an additional planning year or a new charter from the Princeton International Academy Charter School.”
The petition is addressed to the state Department of Education.
The charter school has faced opposition since it won approval by the state Department of Education in January, 2010, to educate students from the Princeton, South Brunswick, and WW-P school districts. The school will be the first to offer an International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum framework as well as dual language Mandarin-English immersion.
Officials and residents in the WW-P, South Brunswick, and Princeton school districts have been fighting the school’s opening because of the per-pupil costs they would have to send to the charter school when it opens.
It was originally scheduled to open in September, 2010, but WW-P officials were among those who successfully fought a prior PIACS application to the Plainsboro Zoning Board last summer, when it proposed to open at St. Joseph’s Seminary on Mapleton Road.
As a result, PIACS was granted an extension by the state Department of Education. If PIACS does not open this year, the state could extend its deadline for an occupancy permit until Thursday, July 15. If no extension is granted, PIACS would have to reapply to the DOE for a new charter.
The application on behalf of the charter school was made by 12 P & Associates LLC, of Lake Drive in Princeton, which is also listed as the contract purchaser. Critics of the school have noted that the Helena May, a former PIACS trustee, is the owner of 12 P & Associates.
The application is also for a private school, the YingHua Day School, which would move to the location. PIACS lead founder Bonnie Liao founded the private school in 2007. She insisted that the charter school will not subsidize the private school and that each school would be a separate entity. PIACS would occupy 13,780 square feet, while YingHua would occupy 2,115 square feet of the facility.
