Kearny Bd. of Educ. v. Hudson Arts & Sci. Charter Sch.
| Docket Number | A-0335-18 |
| Decision Date | 14 July 2022 |
| Parties | KEARNY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Petitioner-Appellant, v. HUDSON ARTS AND SCIENCE CHARTER SCHOOL, KEARNY, NEW JERSEY REQUEST FOR CHARTER AMENDMENT, and DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Respondents-Respondents. |
| Court | New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division |
This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.
Submitted October 18, 2021
On appeal from the New Jersey Commissioner of Education.
Sciarrillo, Cornell, Merlino, McKeever &Osborne, LLC attorneys for appellant (Dennis McKeever, of counsel and on the briefs).
Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland &Perretti, LLP, attorneys for respondent Hudson Arts and Sciences Charter School (Stephanie Edelson, of counsel; Fiona E. Cousland, on the brief).
Matthew J. Platkin, Acting Attorney General, attorney for respondent New Jersey Department of Education, Commissioner of Education (Sookie Bae, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel; Jaclyn M. Frey, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).
Before Judges Messano and Accurso.
The Kearny Board of Education appeals from an August 9, 2018 decision of the Department of Education permitting the Hudson Arts and Science Charter School to amend its charter to open two new satellite locations, one in Kearny. The Kearny Board contends the decision should be reversed because Hudson Arts' application was untimely, and the amendment negatively impacts the Kearny Board's schools. We disagree the request for a charter amendment to permit the satellites was untimely, and the record lacks any evidence of its fiscal impact on the district's schools. Accordingly we affirm.
The record in this case is very thin, but the few facts we have appear undisputed. The Department granted Hudson Arts its charter in July 2016, and it opened its first location in Kearny that year. In November 2016, Hudson Arts filed a timely request to amend its charter to increase its enrollment, see N.J.A.C. 6A:11-2.6(a)(2)(ii) (requiring amendment requests to increase enrollment be filed by December 1 for the following academic year), and add a satellite campus in Jersey City at a location to be determined. The Department approved the amendment on February 28, 2017, permitting an increase in the maximum approved enrollment from 483 in the 2017-2018 school year to 1021 by 2019-2020 and asking the school to file the required amendment documentation when it identified the site of its Jersey City satellite. The Kearny Board did not object to Hudson Arts' increased enrollment or its Jersey City satellite nor appeal the Department's decision approving both. Its opportunity to do so has now long since passed.
A little over a year later, in March 2018, Hudson Arts sought another amendment to its charter, this one identifying its new location in Jersey City and seeking to add an additional facility in Kearny. The new Kearny campus with thirty-five classrooms, a gym and a cafeteria dwarfed the school's Jersey City satellite, which would have only eight classrooms, a cafeteria and a recreation room.
The Kearny Board objected, claiming "the request comes three months past the legal deadline of December 1 . . . for amendments that impact enrollment." It asserted Hudson Arts had already caused "the reallocation of more than 4 million dollars" from the public schools in this "seriously underfunded" district, and new budget figures required it "to earmark more than 1.5 million dollars to fund" Hudson Arts' enrollment increase. The Kearny Board further noted the Department's February 2017 approval increasing Hudson Arts' maximum enrollment contemplated a satellite site in Jersey City, which the Kearny Board claimed would have a significantly lesser impact on the Kearny schools than the newly proposed thirty-five classroom facility in Kearny. The Kearny Board contended Hudson Arts had not been candid about its expansion plans, and it was contrary to the intent of the regulations governing charter schools "for a district of residency to be notified at the end of March that an additional facility which will increase the enrollment of local students will be opening for September."
The Department approved the amendment in August 2018, just weeks before the start of the new school year. The Kearny Board appeals, reprising the arguments it made to the Department that the requested amendment was late, and "[t]he creation and operations" of Hudson Arts has "substantially hindered" the ability of the Kearny Board "to continue to offer quality...
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