State approves Jersey Shore Charter School
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN — After three tries, the Jersey Shore Charter School won the approval of state Commissioner of Education William L. Librera and expects to be up and running this fall with students in grades five through seven from this borough, Oceanport and West Long Branch.

The new middle school plans to add an eighth grade the following year.

Gary Bradley, one of the founders of the charter school, said the school "probably" will be located in this borough.

"We haven’t finalized negotiations for that yet," he said. "We’ve been in negotiations for a while, but it’s been very difficult to get a lease without any legal status."

Jersey Shore Charter School was one of two charter schools approved by Librera for this year. The other is the Great Falls Charter School, which will serve students from Paterson.

There currently are 50 operating charter schools in New Jersey which enroll nearly 13,000 students in grades from pre-kindergarten through 12.

The Jersey Shore Charter School was approved for 180 students initially, with a four-year projection of serving 240 students from the three towns.

Oceanport Schools Superintendent James DiGiovani said he wasn’t sure at this point what impact the charter school’s opening would have on his district.

He expressed concern, however, about the amount of money from the school district that would follow students from the borough to the charter school.

A school district is required by the state to pass on to a charter school 90 percent of the cost per pupil of students who transfer to the charter school.

The per-pupil cost of students in the Oceanport schools is about $7,000, according to DiGiovani.

"I don’t have a problem with the philosophy of a charter school. I think it’s very similar to the philosophy of the Oceanport schools," he said. "My problem is how they are funded."

DiGiovani said the charter school has estimated it would draw 25 students from Oceanport in the first year and 60 in the second year. He said in grades five through seven the district has about 90 to 100 students per grade level, so that would figure out to about 15 students per grade level when the eighth grade is opened at the charter school, or 15 to 20 percent of the district’s students.

But he had no idea if those projections would bear out.

"We’ve done a great job in this district of educating students," he said. "Our per-pupil cost is low and our student performance is extremely high. Whether you take a look at that based on the ESPA, the GEPA (the state-mandated fourth-grade and eighth-grades tests), or the Terra Nova (a standardized test which also is used by the district), our students perform at extremely high levels.

"I think at this point the citizens of Oceanport have a history of supporting their schools and their school budgets," he added, "and I don’t see why they would leave such a great place."

Bradley said the charter school has a mailing list of "a few hundred families" that have shown interest and plans to be advertising heavily for students. He said they will be attracted to the charter school because it is geared to the individual student who will be encouraged to pursue his or her interests. Instead of marking periods, he said, they will have project periods.

Bradley said each student will have a laptop computer, and the school will have partnerships with universities — New Jersey Institute of Technology and Monmouth University — and with the Monmouth County Library System.

The school has billed itself as using the local "environment," but Bradley said that doesn’t necessarily mean the "green environment," but the community.

Bradley said the charter school now is searching for a principal and teachers. He