Two Mothers Hand-Deliver Petition Opposing Mandarin Charter School to Department of Education

Two mothers, one from Princeton and one from South Brunswick, hand-delivered  a “Say No to Proposed Mandarin Charter School (PIACS)” petition Tuesday to the state Department of Education.

Lisa Grieco-Rodgers, of Monmouth Junction, and Liz Lempert, of Princeton Township, anticipating a request from Princeton International Academy Charter School for another year’s planning extension, delivered a petition containing the signatures of more than 1,200 residents of Princeton, South Brunswick, Plainsboro and West Windsor asking that Acting Commissioner of the Department of Education Christopher Cerf and Director of the Office of Charter Schools Carly Bolger deny any requested extension.

Grieco-Rodgers and Lempert hoped to deliver their petition to Cerf, himself but Alan Guenther, the department’s director of communications accepted the petition on Cerf’s behalf.  

Citing the more than 500 residents from the three sending school districts who showed up to protest the PIACS petition before the South Brunswick Zoning Board of Adjustment, Grieco-Rodgers said residents’ concerns include adequate numbers of restrooms, proper food prep area, private-enclosed nurse’s office and proper child drop off/pick up.

Residents see PIACS as being a way to use public money to help fund the private YingHua International School, which would be housed in the same building. The two schools would share common areas.

“In our eyes, they (PIACS officials) truly do not have their act together,” Grieco-Rodgers said. “We want the Department of Education to tell us why we need this school.”

Grieco-Rodgers is a member of Save Our Schools, a group advocating for charter school reform, and Lempert serves on the Princeton Township Committee. But both women stressed on Tuesday that their work on the PIACS petition is their own and does not reflect their other political affiliations. 

Lempert said she believes if state officials review the public information available from the South Brunswick hearings, they would not grant an extension.

Opening a charter school that would serve 170 students from three top-performing public school districts is essentially using public money to fund a boutique private school, Lempert said.

Greico-Rodgers agreed.

They (Cerf and Bolger) have to listen to the voters and the people who are paying the bill,” she said. “We felt that in order to be heard, we have to come here and deliver a petition.”

The petition, which garnered more than 1,200 online signatures in five days, asked people to sign the following statement:

“As residents of South Brunswick, Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro school districts, we the undersigned 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.”

PIACS was approved by the state Department of Education as a dual-language Mandarin-English immersion school to serve kindergarten, first and second-grades.

School officials hoped to open in September 2010 at St. Joseph’s Seminary on Mapleton Road in Plainsboro, but problems with the school’s municipal zoning application caused the hearings to be delayed and the school could not open.

The state granted the school a one-year planning extension.

Now officials hope to open PIACS at 12 Perrine Road in South Brunswick, but developer 12 P & Associations, LLC’s hearing before the Zoning Board of Adjustment has been continued until July 7.

PIACS plans to share the Perrine Road location with the YingHua International School, a private school founded by PIACS lead founder Dr. Bonnie Liao.

Grieco-Rodgers said based on YingHua’s 2010 family handbook, nearly all of the school’s trustees and committee chairs are also founders of the charter school.

The concern is that funding a boutique school will only lesson the quality of public education at a time when schools are facing layoffs and program cuts due to budget constraints.

“When you start to pick away at a foundation that it strong, it slowly starts to crumble the building,” Grieco-Rodgers said. “That’s what will happen if the state does not look at what’s happening.”

At a forum in May, Cerf said he understand how boutique charter schools may not be necessary in successful suburban school districts.

Parker Block, a spokesperson for PIACS, said recently he was not surprised that the petition garnered so much public support because of what he sees as school districts employing scare tactics to convince residents to oppose charters.

Block has said that PIACS will not open in South Brunswick this fall, but school officials are looking at potential temporary sites in Princeton and West Windsor, although he has declined to say exactly where the temporary locations might be located.