Princeton-based American Boychoir has confirmed it is looking at the possibility of relocating to Plainsboro’s St. Joseph’s Seminary.
D.J. Downing, a spokeswoman for the American Boychoir, confirmed the school is “exploring the option” of moving into space at the Mapleton Road seminary, but says the school has not gone into any formal agreements or contracts.
“One of the main reasons is to provide more facilities for our school,” said Downing. “The seminary campus has facilities that we don’t currently have, including a performance space and gymnasium. These are important aspects. We’re definitely looking at it.”
Downing said officials are hoping to make an announcement in the early fall about whether the school will relocate. “St. Joseph’s is one of the places we explored.”
When asked about the current space in Princeton, Downing said the American Boychoir is planning to relocate and would not continue using its Princeton facility. “We have no plans at this time for the current space.”
Speculation began to circulate last month, after another organization, the Princeton International Academy Charter School, failed to get a certificate of occupancy at the seminary, where it had planned to open in September, offering an immersion program in Mandarin Chinese.
Earlier this month, the Plainsboro Planning Board adopted an amendment to its Master Plan that would enable the rezoning of the St. Joseph’s Seminary property on Mapleton Road to allow for education uses on the site. The amendment designates the zone as an educational and cultural arts area. Work will begin on writing the complementary regulatory ordinances enacting that amendment.
The prospects of restoring educational uses at this particular site has already been contemplated. It attracted attention this summer when the charter school tried to obtain a variance to operate at the seminary.
A confluence of events shut down PIACS officials’ efforts to open next month. A July 19 hearing on PIACS’ application for a variance to occupy St. Joseph’s Seminary was canceled at the last minute, upon request of the charter school itself, as a result of the state Department of Education’s denial of an extension of a July 15 deadline to obtain a certificate of occupancy (CO) for the Mapleton Road seminary. PIACS missed the original deadline due to the postponement of the originally scheduled Zoning Board hearing due to a technicality on July 7.
The lease agreement that PIACS had with the seminary was contingent upon the school receiving the official charter from the DOE, which it did not because it missed the deadline to obtain the CO.
However, the DOE gave the charter school an entire year to find a facility and obtain a CO — without having to repeat the process of re-applying for its charter at the state level.
Parker Block, a spokesman for PIACS, points to the Master Plan amendment as proof that political forces, and not zoning issues, led to the difficulties the charter school had in opening at that location this year.
“It basically shows there was no merit to the zoning issue,” Block said. “It was pure politics. There is no way that anyone can argue that there’s any difference at all between what we are asking for and what is now sailing through uncontested.”
“The point that officials in Plainsboro are trying to make is that [the seminary] is fine for education, just not fine for a charter school,” he added.
Block confirmed that charter school officials are looking at adding a third grade to the school as it targets opening in September, 2011. “We made it clear to the commissioner that the 60 children who would have been second graders would never have a chance to attend the school if we were not allowed to open,” he said. “We did not get the extension, and several of the parents have come to us, asking if that’s an opportunity.”
He said that on their behalf, officials are exploring the possibility of adding the third grade. That, however, would require the school to go through another whole application process with the state Department of Education to receive a charter. “If we want to do that, we would have to re-apply completely, which means we go through the same process we went through last year.”
It is not definite, and a decision will have to be made soon because the next application would have to be submitted to the state by early October. Charter school officials are still looking at a few other locations for opening in September, 2011.
