HOBOKEN – The New Jersey Department of Education will deliver its final ruling “shortly after” Feb. 2 on whether the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) can expand to seventh and eighth grade, according to correspondence between the state and lawyers for HoLa and the Hoboken Board of Education.
Following a controversial legal challenge filed by the Hoboken school board in state appellate court — seeking to block the school’s expansion — state education commissioner David Hespe was granted another chance to review his agency’s March 2014 approval of HoLa’s expansion.
Hespe had asked in November that the case be remanded to his office “so that additional evidence and data may be reviewed regarding issues related to HoLa’s enrollment demographics and the relevant community population.” The school board has accused HoLa of causing de facto segregation in its schools.
In a Jan. 16 letter obtained by The Hoboken Reporter, the DOE said that HoLa’s renewal and expansion application “remains pending” until it finishes its reconsideration.
HoLa held its enrollment lottery for the 2015-16 school year on Jan. 9. The presumptive newly created seventh grade was included in it.
Eric Harrison, the lawyer for the school board, had filed a motion to stay the seventh grade expansion pending DOE’s ruling. Last week, HoLa board president Barbara Martinez stated that she believed Harrison’s motion to stay had been denied, allowing HoLa’s seventh grade expansion to go forward.
For more on HoLa’s seventh grade expansion, check out our most recent article on the school.