A disagreement over the cost of the Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS) to the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District has escalated into a war of words between the district and one of the school’s co-founders.
In WW-P, the school board, administration, and even some of the public not only question the need for the Mandarin language school, they also agonize over the impact it will have on the budget in a year when costs are up, revenues are down, and state aid is being slashed.
Meanwhile, one of the school’s co-founders — Princeton resident Parker Block — has gone on the offensive as well, lambasting the school district for spreading “false” information.
During a budget session on February 23, board member Randall Tucker said that the district will have to send $800,000 to the PIACS as a result of the number of students from Plainsboro and West Windsor going to the school. The school was recently approved by the state and will serve students from WW-P, Princeton, and South Brunswick.
Board member Richard Kaye was upset about state actions that will result in lost revenue for WW-P, and specifically pointed to the funds to be sent to the charter school.
He added that the charter school — approved by the outgoing education commissioner — will serve three communities “that seem to have far little need” for it.
“West Windsor is not a place where the school district has failed any students,” Kaye said. WW-P has its own Mandarin language program.
Combined with the $2.885 million the district stands to lose in state aid, “it’s important for the public to become more educated” on the issues and to contact their legislators, said Kaye.
Members of the public also weighed in during the board’s meeting on February 23. Former school board president Dick Harbourt called the state’s approval of the charter school “unlawful” because it, in essence, establishes a private school that is publicly funded when there is no need for one.
Comparing the approval of the charter school to modern-day “segregation,” he asked the board to file a lawsuit, if it could do so without costing the district money.
West Windsor Councilwoman Linda Geevers, liaison to the school board, also said “it’s unfortunate that we’re going to lose $800,000 in an exceptional school district.”
In light of recent statements made by PIACS detractors, Block has made strong statements in support of the school. He pointed out that the program would only represent a .7 percent reduction in the district’s budget and a 1 percent reduction the students being served.
“When the number of students being served goes up, budgets typically go up. In the real world the same physics applies to declines. Despite fixed costs, a manager should be able to handle those types of variances,” said Block.
“It is an unfortunate yet common occurrence in the U.S. for school district administrators to look for a convenient scapegoat to explain larger management issues or to provide cover for difficult choices,” Block said. “It seems certain administrators in WW-P are employing the same tired tactics and misinformation to manipulate people’s emotions and instigate attacks against one particular school.”
Block also alleges that the school district is maintaining a surplus fund in excess of $22 million that it could use toward tax relief. He bases his numbers on the district’s Annual Financial Report for 2009 posted on the state Department of Education website.
He points out that charter schools are not allowed by law to maintain large surplus reserves.
“Instead of returning surplus dollars to taxpayers as they were supposed to do, they held it in reserve and now the state is targeting the districts that maintained surpluses,” Block said.
However, Larry Shanok, the assistant superintendent for finance, using the same document, explained that the school district does not have more than $22 million in surplus — by any means.
By law, the district is restricted to keeping its surplus at 2 percent of the overall $155.9 million budget — which is $3.1 million, he said.
The $22.6 million figure that Block is using is known as the “total general fund” balance. That is broken down in the district’s Annual Financial Report for 2009.
Of the $22.6 million, $1.173 million is reserved for encumbrances. Then there is money that has been put aside for the long-range facility plan into a capital reserve account. According to Shanok, the $6.4 million listed for this capital reserve account was reduced by $1.85 million in last year’s budget to support the district’s solar project — in order to save taxpayer money.
Also part of the $22.6 million is money that is being used to offset taxes. There is $4.738 million that has been used to offset taxes “in the year we are in,” according to Shanok. Officially, this figure is referred to as the “prior year excess surplus.” A figure of $1.173 million has been appropriated as anticipated revenue for the year ending June 30, 2010.
Still, $4.581 million more has been reserved for tax relief “for the budget we’re working on.” Officially, it is known as excess surplus for the current year. “If he’s asking us to spend that, he’s asking us to raise taxes on the upcoming year,” said Shanok.
The financial statement also lists $503,528 for maintenance reserve and $999,033 for emergency reserve.
Finally, there is the unreserved amount — which comes out to about $3.1 million — which represents the 2 percent of the budget, said Shanok, who added that the amount of surplus here is minimal, compared to the surplus held by many municipalities in their budgets. “I don’t think you find many of the municipalities operating on the tax reserves,” Shanok said.
Shanok reiterated what district officials have been saying all along — that the $800,000 that the district will have to send to the charter school to pay for the 75 students that will go to the charter school is detrimental to the programs at the West Windsor-Plainsboro district.
Shanok said that the students will not be coming from one class, and there is no way to cut staff to offset the cost, he said. “We will send them $800,000, but we won’t reduce our costs by anything significant,” he said. “We have to literally cut what we do for instruction.”
“The state law says they have to pick a number (as an estimate, as of May, of the number of students who will attend the charter school) and unfortunately the Department of Education accepted their number,” Shanok said. “It’s not as if we can just cut a bunch of teachers who won’t be needed.”
While charter schools are useful in helping students in lower-performing districts in urban areas, Shanok said, “the more you take away, the harder it becomes to have an excellent program” in the WW-P district. “When you’ve got a high-performing district, it hurts the kids.”
