Council Hears Charter School Presentation

Overcrowded Borough classrooms have made their way into the board room. A presentation at last night’s Borough Council meeting from the Beta Charter School was given to the Council and community members to further explain how a charter school could benefit overpopulated Borough schools.

Richard Ginn, a founder of Beta Charter, and Borough resident, gave a presentation to the Council and community on the benefits a charter school could give the Borough.

Ginn’s presentation acknowledged Borough school’s current population situation and explained some of the ways a charter school could help out students and the town.

“The reasons why we are here to talk about a charter school is about two simple concepts: efficiency and collaboration,” explained Ginn. “They relate both to the issue that is facing the town and I think we can all agree that the problem is a population and facility issue.”

Ginn further explained in his presentation that the typical reasons why a charter school is opened has to do with academic performance, the ability to give parents a choice in where their children can attend school, and for the flexibility of changing curriculum to better suite student’s needs.

Another important component to Ginn’s presentation was where money would come from to build a charter school. According to Ginn, funding to open a charter school would come from the state. He even provided figures that show how funding a charter school is less expensive than funding a public school.

After Ginn’s presentation, community members were able to ask questions to Ginn about a Borough charter school. The most common concern voiced after the presentation was where the money to maintain a charter school would come from.

“Yes it is true that initial costs to start a charter school are very low. However, over time the costs tend to increase as you add more grades to the school and as you need extra things for your facility the costs do increase. In towns with a similar structure to Freehold Borough, with only a few schools, these costs can be detrimental. We are already an under-funded school district and can not have those funds drawn away to go to another school,” was one comment made by Borough PTO member, Margaret Rogers.

In additional with Roger’s comment, Borough Board of Education President Annette Jordan, said that each child that chooses to go to a charter school would cost the borough $8,700.

"The Department of Education mandates that .1% of state aid that goes to a public school district would have to go to the charter school. That equates to $8,700 per student. That means that the district would have to reduce appropriations by $100 per student and that is just not possible," explained Jordan.

The issue of students going to a charter school was previously brought up at the Jan. 23 Borough Board of Education meeting, where Ginn addressed the Board during the public comment part of the meeting.

Additional concerns voiced by the public were the fear of “skimming” only the highest achieving students, and the fact that a charter school is not a guaranteed fix to the overpopulated schools and could potentially hurt the district more by opening. Reasoning behind that concern is because a charter school is open to all Borough students, even those that are home schooled or go to private schools. With all children able to apply, it is possible that the charter school could be filled up with students from other schools and could still leave Borough public schools over populated.

After the public voiced their opinions, the council spoke and expressed a similar opinion; that public schools needs to receive the proper amount of money from the state.

“I think the real problem here is, and I’m not going to sugar coat it, we have been given lip service from Trenton for way too long now. We need to tell Trenton to wake up. We need more money,” said Councilman Jaye Sims.  

The Beta Charter School has been speaking to local groups and organizations about bringing a charter school to the Borough and is still open to speak to anyone interested in learning more about charter schools. Currently, Beta Charter School is asking Borough community members to visit their website, www.betacharter.org and fill out their survey, regardless of their views on charter schools. Based on the community response to their surveys, the Beta Charter School will decide if they should continue to peruse bringing a charter school to the Borough.