The Hamilton Township School District and a countywide grassroots political organization with members in Hamilton have appealed to the Department of Education to reject an application from Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy to become a New Jersey charter school.
The district, along with an organization known as Our Revolution Trenton Mercer, have said that TCPA’s application to become McCorristin Charter School should not be granted for a number of reasons, including that it would divert millions of dollars from the district’s budget toward McCorristin.
However, the Hamilton Post has seen an April 19 letter sent from DOE acting commissioner Kevin Dehner to Tracey Destribats, lead founder for the proposed McCorristin Charter School, informing Destribats that the school’s application has been approved, pending “successful participation in the preparedness process … and compliance with all applicable state and federal regulations.”
HTSD superintendent Scott Rocco sent a letter to Mayor Jeff Martin in February stating that while he “understands and respects” TCPA and its independent, Catholic school identity, “the reality of this situation … demonstrates that Hamilton Board of Education dollars will be siphoned from its programs and offerings to the proposed charter school.”
TCPA currently charges students tuition fees. Charter schools are by definition public schools, so McCorristin Charter School students would be funded by taxpayers.
In its March 13 presentation of the preliminary 2024-25 budget, the Hamilton Township Board of Education estimated a rise of more than $5 million in charter school-related costs if the McCorristin application were approved — almost double the current expenditure.
Nor is Hamilton the only district that will be affected. Based on enrollment projections provided in the McCorristin application, Trenton could be expected to see the same budgetary impact from the charter school, if not a greater impact.
Joe Marchica, a Hamilton resident, is acting chair of Our Revolution Trenton Mercer’s public education committee. ORTM describes itself as a “local, grassroots organization aiming to support progressive candidates and policies at all levels of government.”
ORTM supported, among other candidates, the three school board candidates who were elected to Hamilton’s school board last November: Denise Soto, Christina Harvey and Meaghan Stanton.
Marchica says ORTM only learned about the McCorristin application in early April. ORTM has since sent out two press releases about the charter school application, and also begun a petition against the school’s approval. The petition garnered 812 signatures in its first 10 days online on the Action Network website, actionnetwork.org.
“New Jersey’s charter school laws are very problematic,” Marchica said in a phone conversation. “They designate the Department of Education as the sole authority to approve or deny, and then oversee these schools. There is no mechanism for local communities and their taxpayers to hold charter schools accountable at all.”
Marchica said he hopes both the Trenton and Hamilton school districts will appeal the approval decision. “They should have legal grounds to win,” Marchica said. “We (the ORTM Protecting Public education Committee) will continue to work on this and keep collecting signatures. We’re prepared to steadily escalate our tactics to keep up public pressure on the Department of Education and help ensure they make the right decision on this. Our communities don’t want an unaccountable, privately run charter school stealing critical public funds away from our public school districts.”
The New Jersey Public Charter School Association has hit back at ORTM’s petition. NJPCSA CEO Harry Lee said it contains “falsehoods and misleading statements” and stating that the charter school “could have a net positive financial impact on both Trenton and Hamilton.”
But in February, when Rocco sent his letter to Jeff Martin, he addressed and refuted this claim. “This is not true in year one, two or any year a new charter school would be receiving funding from the (Hamilton) district’s budget,” Rocco wrote.
Rocco has also noted that Mercer County already has eight charter schools, four of which are within 3 miles of the TCPA campus.
“We are not opposed to TCPA,” Rocco told the Post. “But its conversion to a charter school as put forth in the application is deficient in multiple areas. We have identified those areas and why the application should be rejected. We were notified last Friday (April 19) of its approval, and the board of education is now looking at any and all actions we can take moving forward in relationship to our opposition.”
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