A hearing on plans for the Princeton International Academy Charter School, which is proposing to open in September, is scheduled to continue at the South Brunswick Zoning Board on Thursday, June 2.
PIACS is applying for a use variance for a charter school and a private school facility at 12 Perrine Road in South Brunswick, near the Plainsboro border.
During the April 14 meeting, PIACS’s witnesses, including the architect and owner, testified. Residents were allowed to ask questions. The board did not get to hear testimony from PIACS’s traffic engineer, who will testify on June 2.
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. PIACS founder Bonnie Liao confirmed this in an online interview, saying that May resigned from the board in March. Liao insisted May was not in it to make a profit.
Liao also confirmed that the application is also for a private school, the YingHua Day School, which would move to the location. 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, and that everything was being done legally.
This concept was the focus for many of the opponents’ concerns during the meeting. Opponents have questioned how the building is going to be divided by the charter school and the private school, which is owned by the same person. WW-P School Board President Hemant Marathe has asked whether the money going to the charter school (from taxpayers) is going to also fund the private school.
The facility is currently used as office space and as a liquor warehouse.
