BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Board of Education is expected to present at its April 25 meeting a resolution opposing the establishment of a proposed charter school in Bloomfield. The school would serve middle-school students. The board will offer the resolution because an application to the NJ Department of Education has been made for a charter school to be named the Bloomfield Conservatory Charter School.
BOE member Dan Anderson, in a recent telephone interview, said the group that made the application is the same group that applied to have the Frank Sinatra Charter School of the Arts established in Bloomfield. The NJ DOE turned down that application last year.
Anderson said the proposed school, based upon the projected enrollment, would divert $2.3 million of Bloomfield taxpayer’s money from Bloomfield public schools to the charter school. This funding did not include student transportation and special-needs education, he said, but these costs would also have to be picked up by the Bloomfield taxpayer.
“This charter school would just try to duplicate what we already have,” he said. “The argument would be that educational dollars are following the child.”
But according to Anderson, even though taxpayers pay whether a student attends a public or charter school, there would be cuts in the public school budget if dollars go to a charter school.
“We have fixed costs,” he said. “We would have to make cuts. The revenue goes down but not the expenses.’
He said heating, health benefits, school maintenance — these are costs that do not decrease when there are fewer students.
“Where do we save the money?” Anderson said.
He also said that it is easier for a charter school to remove a student from its rolls than it is for a public school.
“There is not the same standards or accountability with a charter school,” he said.
The Bloomfield Conservatory Charter School, on its application, is located at 683 Bloomfield Ave. But this is the location of the Sacred Heart School where a daycare center occupies one of the floors. Anderson said he contacted the Archdiocese of Newark to find out if they knew the proposed school used their address. Anderson said they did not.
“This is sometimes how charter schools work,” he said. “You have to put down a physical address. Makes you wonder what else is on the application that isn’t up to snuff.”
Anderson said that the founders of the proposed Bloomfield charter school also have an application for a charter school in East Orange. He likened these two applications as throwing everything against a wall to see what sticks.
“I have nothing against the people making the application but I hope it’s the last time they try,” he said. “I haven’t seen any interest or demand for a charter school and it’s a good money-maker for the founders.”
According to the application, the Bloomfield Conservatory Charter School will have 240 students with 80 at each grade level. There will be 15 to 20 students in each classroom. The proposed school has 11 founders. The lead founder is Darrell Shoulars.
In a telephone interview earlier this week, Shoulars said students would be taught by a blended learning process. He said this meant that students would be taught from a computer with in-class instructors assisting the child.
“A lot of school districts are moving towards blended learning,” he said.
The Bloomfield Conservatory would be the first charter school in Essex County using blended learning and the third one in the state, according to Shoulars.
He said although the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts application failed, the founders learned many things.
“That’s why we’re back,” he said. “One thing we learned was that our educational program had to be more comprehensive.”
Another thing he learned, he said, was that it had to be determined if a student was going to major or minor in the arts. The conservatory would offer five art programs: dramatic arts; music and dance; entertainment arts; communication arts; and the visual arts.
“We didn’t have this as well defined with the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts,” he said.
Conservatory teachers would be nonunion and cost per student would be $10,158 annually, he said.
Shoulars said the arts program in the proposed charter school was more comprehensive than the one offered by the Bloomfield Middle School.
“They don’t offer dance,” he said, “and no TV production.” He also said that BMS had no blended learning. “They have the technology, but only offer it once a week for 38 minutes,” he said. “All students at the charter school will have a Chromebook.”
A Chromebook is a personal computer.
Shoulars also said that all students at the Bloomfield Conservatory will be taught pre-algebra and algebra while at BMS, they are electives. A child’s education is up to the parents, not the Bloomfield School District, he said.
“We’re not in competition with the public schools,” he said. “I just want to educate children.”
Regarding Shoulars’ assertions, BMS Principal Alla Vayda-Manso, in an email, said a technology class is offered as an elective every other day for 42 minutes with 401 students enrolled.
“BMS has an additional 300 students with a one-to-one Chromebook take-home device which is used for instruction on a daily basis,” she said. “Next year, all BMS students as well as BHS freshmen will have a one-to-one device.”
She also said that her school offers pre-algebra to qualified seventh-graders and algebra to eighth-graders.
“We offer a wide choice of electives as well as extracurricular activities which allow students to explore their interests in fine and performing arts, leadership, robotics, creative writing, personal finance, community outreach and more,” she said.
BOE President Emily Smith, in an email, said a public school education cannot be replicated by a charter school because they are not required to meet the benchmarks a public school must.
Shoulars acknowledged that the address given on the application was a facility owned by the Archdiocese of Newark and that he had not contacted the archdiocese. He said to make the application, he needed an address.
Shoulars said he plans to lease a building for a year or two and then the founders would build their own school. Funding for that would come from charter management organizations and grants, he said “If the archdiocese said ‘no,’ someone else would say ‘yes,’” Shoulars said, adding that the founders are aggressively looking for a facility in Bloomfield.
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