H.P. school district filing a formal appeal of Hebrew language charter

The rows of extra folding chairs set up in the Irving School Media Center were the first indication that the December PTO meeting would be atypical. That the chairs were filled completely before the start of the meeting was the second sign.

The ticket drawing such unusual numbers out on a particularly frigid December evening was a presentation by the Highland Park Board of Education president, on a proposed regional Hebrew language charter school.

For some attendees, Wendy Saiff’s presentation was their introduction to the charter school, whose application has been placed on a fast-track review in the state Department of Education. For others, it was a continuation of a November emergency meeting called after the school board’s receipt of a bill, nearing $100,000, from Trenton for the charter’s expenses.

In keeping with state policy, the language school would be funded through the Highland Park and Edison public school budgets, despite the public opposition of the H.P. Board of Education.

The Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter School, proposed by Highland Park resident Sharon Akman, would be a regional high school with grades 9 through 12, serving residents of Highland Park, Edison and New Brunswick. Its instruction in the Hebrew language would include a partial-immersion curriculum.

The charter projects to serve 100 students in its first year and expand to 200 in following years.

Saiff reported that the invoice for Tikun Olam was followed a week later by another for $62,000, on behalf of the Hatikvah International Charter Academy in East Brunswick. This amount represents the fee Highland Park must pay for four children who attend Hatikvah, a K-8 Hebrew language school. Those four children, Saiff pointed out, were never enrolled in Highland Park public schools originally.

With the growing responsibilities to pay for charter schools, the effect on a budget already struggling with cuts in state aid and a 2% tax cap will be devastating, Saiff said.

After Saiff’s presentation, an open discussion of the issue ranged from strategic compromise to full opposition. Compromise on some of the charter applicants’ original petitions – for a Hebrew language instructor, and a separate table designated for kosher meals at the high school – was rejected by other speakers, arguing that no one group should be accommodated above others in a town of such diversity. “I am uncomfortable bending over backwards,” summarized one attendant.

Suggestions of more overt opposition included legal action and, even more directly, one resident posited, “What if we just didn’t pay?”

The answers, many agreed, lie with investigating the appeal that charter schools hold for parents and addressing their benefits into reform of the public schools. Yet, missing from this meeting were any representatives of Tikun Olam who could answer these residents’ fundamental questions.

“What exactly is the mission of the charter?” asked one attendee. She noted that language instruction could be fulfilled by resources already available in the community, either for fee or through grant opportunities (as were obtained earlier in the 2000s for a Chinese language program brought to the elementary school).

But if the charter’s goal is to emphasize social outreach or multi-cultural instruction, she said, the full diversity of our public school students would benefit from such reform, as well.

Providing Hebrew language instruction at the cost of further depleting the public school budgets did not resonate well with others, who noted their investment in readying their children for college. At the meeting, it was pointed out that Hebrew is not accepted for language credit at the many colleges and universities where it is not taught.

With questions unanswered and with frustrations brewing, residents will get another opportunity to meet with school board representatives on January 13th at the Highland Park Middle School. In the meantime, lawyers for the Board of Education have submitted a formal appeal to Trenton. A petition of opposition is also being circulated.

And as a community divides over the issue, the irony of the proposed name Tikun Olam – “Heal the World” – was not lost on many.