The Red Bank Charter School, one of New Jersey’s longest running, occupies an old home joined with a former elementary school building. Its brightly decorated classrooms are filled with a mix of faces: white, Hispanic, and black students, dressed in navy blue and khaki.
“What makes the school special is, we are integrated. That’s hard to do,” said Meredith Pennotti, the charter school’s principal.
Critics see it differently. By competing for students in Red Bank, the charter school has been accused of contributing to segregation of the Monmouth County borough’s traditional public schools, where 82 percent of elementary and middle-school students are Hispanic, compared with 44 percent in the charter.