Deciphering Charter School's Place in the Red Bank School District Budget

Among the Red Bank School District’s more than $19 million proposed budget for 2011-12 is a $1.68 million line item that, no matter how much officials talk about trimming back and cutting costs, it can do nothing about.

It’s the budget for Red Bank Charter School, a figure mandated by the state but paid for by the borough’s taxpayers, a total that, regardless of how well it is utilized by the school, is arrived at without public input.

But, while the district may have concerns about the money leaving its public schools, the charter school isn’t exactly rolling in the dough. The way it works, as established by the state, is simple enough, though that’s precisely what can make it sometimes difficult, too.

The district is required to pay the charter school 90 percent of what it costs to educate its students. The final total is based on how many children the charter school educates, and can rise or fall based on factors like the number of special needs students the school educates, or whether the school reaches its cap of 180 students or comes in just shy of that number.

Though the charter school’s proposed budget is slightly lower than its current budget, the number will likely increase slightly in October, when the school’s final student totals come in.

Though it seems like sending students to the charter school would be a financial benefit to the district – we’re talking 90 cents of every student dollar – district officials say the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

WHAT ROLE FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS?

This report is part of a joint project between NJSpotlight.com (an issues-oriented news site that focuses on policy, politics, and community) and Patch.com to provide both a statewide and local look at the politics of charter schools in many NJ communities, and the tensions that sometimes arise regarding their funding in the age of budget cutbacks.

Statewide: Charter schools in suburbia under debate
East Brunswick: Questioning charter school's right to exist
Gloucester: A home-schooler takes on the school board
Hoboken: Can the public schools compete, by getting better?
Livingston: How many Mandarin schools is too many?
Morristown, Morris Township & Morris Plains: Unity Charter may be a jewel, but it's one with costs 
Princeton: 
South Brunswick: A debate or a shouting match?
Teaneck: Innovation or duplication?

District Business Administrator Annie Darrow it’s more expensive to educate students in public schools, for a number of reasons.

“They don’t have the same expenses as we do,” she said of the charter school. “Our population has a greater percentage of children living in poverty, of children who are primarily Spanish speaking.

“It’s trying to compare apples to oranges.”

That may be, but the gripes seem to be with the system charter schools are currently ruled by, rather than Red Bank Charter School specifically. For one, the school doesn’t decide who can attend, a lottery does. And secondly, charter school Principal Meredith Pennotti said, the school’s allowance is not only restrictive, but fails to accurately represent the complete cost of operating the school. 

While many of the state’s charter schools have very specific focuses – for instance, many New Jersey charter schools focus on specific languages like French or Hebrew in Princeton and Teaneck, respectively – and often have significantly smaller student bodies as a result, Red Bank, with its focus on community and social responsibility, rarely has more than a few open spots available.

And, while the district has no say with how money dedicated to the charter school is spent, the charter school is also restricted in deciding where funding is funneled. There are several things a charter school can’t use its funding for, and one of them is for capital improvements. Charter schools are also reliant on benefactors and private partnerships to help cover school costs, a difficult proposition considering charter schools aren’t allowed to ask the public for more money.

“We always have to be looking for partners who will really serve as benefactors for our school. We would not be able to sustain many of the things we do without them,” Pennotti said. “Because we have no access to the public to pitch out needs, our only recourse is to capitalize on the generosity of our benefactors.

“For instance, we desperately need capital improvements to our building, but there’s no such thing as a bond, no such thing as a public referendum. It’s a handicap we live with, and thus, the partnerships we live with are the ones we really need.”

Though Pennotti has admitted things were difficult for the 11-year-old charter school in the early years – the school didn't even have a home to start, educating kids in a church basement early on – things have gotten appreciably better since. Recently, the school was even recognized by EPIC, an organization that provides the nation’s top charter schools with grant funding for their achievements.

While the district and the charter school operate seemingly independently of each other, officials with both have asked the public to support the district's proposed budget, as well as its 1.9 percent increase.

“We are completely supportive of the budget of the borough and the regional school,” Pennotti said. “Our funding is in direct relation to borough spending. We don’t get to design our budget, we don’t get to pick what we spend on, but we’re definitely supportive of the initiatives proposed by the borough.”

LEARN MORE

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