By Allison Perrine
RED BANK – Despite the “heated rancor” and claims that the Red Bank Charter School contributes to segregation in the borough, the state has again renewed its charter application.
The decision came from the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) Jan. 31 and will allow the public school to remain open for another five-year term.
“For 23 years, Red Bank Charter School has provided our diverse families with an excellent, student-centered academic experience and is a part of the educational fabric in Red Bank. Red Bank Charter School is here to stay and will continue to provide a much-needed public school option for many years to come,” said Kristen Martello, Ed.D., the charter school’s head of school.
But not all are as enthusiastic about the decision. Weeks prior, the borough council supported a resolution advocating for the charter school’s permanent closure after the superintendent of Red Bank Public Schools Jared Rumage, Ed.D., publicly claimed it has “recklessly added and condoned a structure” of segregation for decades.
According to school records, in the 2020-21 school year the charter school student body was comprised of 53 percent Hispanic students, 40 percent white, 7 percent Black and 1 percent Asian. Comparatively, the racial breakdown of students in the Red Bank Borough Public Schools was 85 percent Hispanic, 7 percent white, 5 percent Black and 0 percent Asian.
“We are extremely disappointed with the decision to renew the local charter school. In our opinion, we provided a comprehensive package with detailed evidence supporting a single public school system in Red Bank,” Rumage told The Two River Times. “As we noted in our submission to the NJDOE, this is not a charter school issue, it is an issue of equity. The current structure is clearly a barrier to educational equity in this community and contradicts the longstanding values of the NJDOE and those recently described on the department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) homepage.”
According to Rumage, Red Bank is “the only community in New Jersey of similar size” that supports two public kindergarten through eighth-grade school districts. A “comprehensive review” of both schools would “clearly show” that the charter school “does not distinguish itself in any way from the Red Bank Borough Public Schools,” he argued.
“While the local charter school claims to be ‘much-needed,’ it is not filled to capacity, educates several children who reside in districts outside of Red Bank, and has a dwindling waitlist,” he said. “Most importantly, after 24 years of existence, if this experiment with a two-school model is much-needed, why has it not been replicated in similarly-sized communities by the NJDOE? And why have other local municipalities not explored this much-needed option? Not Fair Haven, not Little Silver, not Eatontown, not Shrewsbury, not Tinton Falls, not Rumson, not Oceanport – and the list goes on throughout the state.”
Others disagree.
According to Martello, the charter school educates 200 Red Bank children and has class sizes of about 20 students. There are no testing criteria to attend and admission is conducted through a random lottery acceptance system that gives weighted preference to any student who comes from a low-income background.
In January, the school was designated as a 2022 State School of Character by Character.org, “a national advocate and leader for character,” according to Martello. It is one of 16 schools statewide to receive the honor among 67 schools nationally.
“For Red Bank Charter School, the development of character has been intrinsic to our mission since the school’s founding in 1998 by emphasizing three bedrock beliefs,” she said: all children can learn; all children must care for themselves and others; and all children should contribute to their larger world. “We are extremely proud to be honored with this distinction.”
She added that, “despite the heated rancor surrounding the renewal process,” the charter school will work with the borough public schools “to end the divisiveness” and find a path forward where “all families’ educational choices are respected.”
The topic has been controversial in town among residents and former students, as well. At a council meeting in December, for example, resident Jessica Naulty – the senior pastor of United Methodist Church of Red Bank – said with “such a strong and award-winning traditional public school system,” she feels it is “redundant and an unfaithful use of taxpayers’ dollars” to support a dual school system in a small municipality.
On the other hand, recent charter school graduate Ella McCourt said had it not been for RBCS she “would not be the person I am today.”
“The charter provides a very unique experience for students that is very difficult to truly understand unless you yourself have been a part of it,” said Ella. “The smaller class size allowed for me to experience more individual help from my teachers and provided me with the second family that I still keep in touch with today.”
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 10-16, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
