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College Achieve Public Schools, the tuition-free charter school set to open this school year in Asbury Park has been granted its final approvals from the State Department of Education.

The pre-K-9 school is currently seeking operation approvals to open [in part] at First Baptist Church on Grand Avenue before the Zoning Board of Adjustment.  

School officials said 276 students in grades K, 1, 5, and 6 will attend the school in August and expect enrollment will grow to over a thousand students in pre-K through 9th by 2020.

“We would like to thank the state of New Jersey for helping us bring a school focused on the goal of college for every single one of our kids to Asbury Park,” said Founding Board member Travis Ally, a parent of five school-age students. “As we work hard to raise achievement in Asbury Park, we need schools like College Achieve to be part of the solution and give parents a choice for a high quality public school.”  

But the existing pre-K through 12 school district has felt the pinch.

Board administrator Geoffrey Hastings said a total of $3,266,750 was cut from the Asbury Park School District budget and redirected to the College Achieve. This resulted in layoffs and the need to eliminate jobs. Some of the staff were rehired through attrition but others turned in their resignations and retirement notices, Hastings said.

Among them was Brian Stokes, who headed the College and Career Readiness Institute, known for transforming students’ focus on their future by administering workshops, panels with nationally recognized professionals and paid internships with city and area businesses.

The public vs charter school debate came to a head when Asbury Park Education Association President John P. Napolitani sent out a mass email calling for a boycott of Marilyn Schlossbach restaurants.

“Honestly, it’s not an attack on her personally,” Napolitani said. “She chooses to be a member of charter school board so I can tell my members they can choose other restaurants. I highly doubt my members impact her livelihood.”

Napolitani said the focus should remain on the charter school’s impact on the Asbury Park School District.

“The superintendent has been trying new and innovative programs to improve our scores so the district can flourish,” he said. “There are two charter schools right now in Asbury Park that draw funds out of district.  Its another charter school, when scores are starting to go up. The only thing pulling more money out of the district does is impede those programs, the association, and what the Superintendent is doing.”

Schlossbach, who sits on the College Achieve Board said she was disheartened by the attack, especially in light of the fact that she has been and will continue to supporter of the Asbury Park School District.

“I donated to breakfast to the school district two weeks ago,” Schlossbach said. “Why am I the scapegoat for the educational problems in Asbury Park or anywhere for that matter. I have kids, I want them to go to a good school. This is an opportunity for students to stay in our community so that people don’t move out of the community to put their kids in better schools.”

Schlossbach said a part of the issue is that a younger generation is moving to Asbury Park for the creative culture it lends but then move away once they begin to have children.

“I pay $9,000 in [annual] property taxes,” said Schlossbach, a mother of twin girls. “I don’t want to have to pay to send my kids to Avon or Bradley or to a private school. I want them here, I want them in a diverse community but I’m not sending them school in Asbury Park.

While Schlossbach acknowledges the Asbury Park School District’s progress during Superintendent Lamont Repollet’s tenure, she said it will take time for district to reach a level where she will feel comfortable sending her girls to the public school district.

“It’s not there yet,” Schlossbach said. “It’s going to be a long time and it will take teachers who are passionate about what they do and the union should stand behind them. There are great teachers in the district and there are apathetic educators.”

In the meantime, College Achieve’s pending approval before the Asbury Park Zoning Board is expected to continue 7 p.m. July 25. For more about the application, click here.

College Achieve officials have said the charter school’s mission is “to prepare students to excel in and graduate from the top colleges and universities in the nation. The academic program emphasizes writing, along with a challenging science technology, engineering, arts, and math [STEAM] curriculum.”

Students are expected to have over five hours of science study per week, well above the national average of 2.3 hours in K-6 schools, officials said. The curriculum is also rooted in the Toulmin College Writing Model, a program that challenges students to write, develop and defend arguments.

“Our schools are focused on inspiring our students to believe in their futures and preparing them to not only graduate from high school, but to excel in and graduate from the best colleges,” Founder and CEO Michael Piscal said. “Everything we do from our emphasis on creating a thinking curriculum to the lengths we go to hire and train the best teachers is done with this focus in mind.”

For more about the Asbury Park School District gains, click here.

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