Apple Charter School

CHARTER SCHOOL SUES DISTRICT: BOARD DENIES REQUEST FOR RENT AND OTHER COSTS; June 25, 2010; The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
The Apple Charter School hasn't even opened yet, but it's already suing the Charleston County School District for more money.

The new charter school on James Island plans to serve low-achieving kindergartners through sixth-graders, and it's asked the court to force the district to pay its rent, maintenance and transportation costs. In May, the charter school asked the board to pay its $200,000 annual lease and $123,000 for student transportation, but the school board turned down the request.

State law calls for charter schools to pay such costs with the money allocated to them by formula, but a law applicable only to Charleston County prohibits the district from denying a charter school anything that is otherwise available to a public school.

Some, such as the Apple Charter School, interpret the local law to mean the district must cover these costs because it does so for non-charter schools. But paying those costs would be giving the school more money than the state formula requires, and that money would come from the district's general operating fund that covers the expenses for every other county school…

The debate about what the local law, Act 189, means in terms of the district's obligation to charter schools has been ongoing for years, and the district has sued the state to determine whether it's constitutional. A circuit judge ruled the law was valid, and the board appealed the case to the state Supreme Court earlier this year…

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