The State Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Poudre School District (PSD) in their case against Ridgeview Classical Schools (RCS). The case began when RCS brought an appeal to the State Board of Education asserting the requirement of PSD to have the charter school pay the district for students who left the charter school after the statewide Oct. 1 count. The charter school said they shouldn't be subjected to funding in a manner different than all the other public schools in the state, and indeed, their authorizing district.
Back in December, the Court of Appeals stated the district was wrong in applying a different funding mechanism to the charter school. Not agreeing with this decision, PSD took an appeal to a higher court.
One might think that since this case has now gone to the highest court in the state, it'd be settled. Wrong. PSD, earlier this year when negotiating another charter school contract, stated that due to a sentence added into the 2009 School Finance Act, they have the right to charge their charter schools for a percentage of the per student funding alloted via the Oct. 1 count. It's unlikely that the outcome of this appeal will have any bearing on future contract negotiations for the charter schools in PSD.
Showing posts with label Legal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legal. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Who Has Sovereignty Over Charter School's Location?
There are a few issues inherent to charter schools that have differing legal opinions. Sovereignty over school district boundaries is one of them.
Global Village Academy, unable to get a charter approved by Denver Public Schools this year, wants to open a second campus in the old Challenges, Choices and Images/Amandla building at I-70 and Peoria. The building is just inside the Denver borders. The Colorado Constitution and state law give a school district jurisdiction over K-12 education within their geographical borders.
But what happens when a charter school cannot find a facility within the boundaries of the district that authorized them? Historically in Colorado, this has been handled in a myriad of ways. Some charter schools have obtained a waiver from state charter school law saying the school should be within its authorizing district or a contiguous district, some have just located in the other district without anything being said by anyone, and others are told by their district, or the district they intend to locate in, that they must have Board of Education approval.
There is no right or wrong answer on how school districts should handle this since it's a gray area of the law. Each district receives its own legal counsel and is not bound by what other districts do.
However, it's interesting when a district wants to have it both ways and when convenient, locate one of their charter schools in a different district and then later say that same district cannot locate a charter school within their boundaries. This is what Denver Public Schools has done by chartering New America Schools-Lowry and Ridge View Academy which are in the Aurora Public School District. Now that Global Village Academy-2nd Campus wants to locate in DPS, there is a "different" legal opinion. DPS didn't ask permission of APS to establish two of their charter schools within APS boundaries. But now DPS says GVA must get the permission of DPS' board--and acknowledges that permission won't be granted.
Unfortunately, questions and issues such as these are not easily resolved. In the past when issues have been interpreted differently the issue has been driven to ligitation. Let's hope in this situation that isn't at the cost of the hundreds of students purportedly on the waiting list at Global Village Academy.
Global Village Academy, unable to get a charter approved by Denver Public Schools this year, wants to open a second campus in the old Challenges, Choices and Images/Amandla building at I-70 and Peoria. The building is just inside the Denver borders. The Colorado Constitution and state law give a school district jurisdiction over K-12 education within their geographical borders.
But what happens when a charter school cannot find a facility within the boundaries of the district that authorized them? Historically in Colorado, this has been handled in a myriad of ways. Some charter schools have obtained a waiver from state charter school law saying the school should be within its authorizing district or a contiguous district, some have just located in the other district without anything being said by anyone, and others are told by their district, or the district they intend to locate in, that they must have Board of Education approval.
There is no right or wrong answer on how school districts should handle this since it's a gray area of the law. Each district receives its own legal counsel and is not bound by what other districts do.
However, it's interesting when a district wants to have it both ways and when convenient, locate one of their charter schools in a different district and then later say that same district cannot locate a charter school within their boundaries. This is what Denver Public Schools has done by chartering New America Schools-Lowry and Ridge View Academy which are in the Aurora Public School District. Now that Global Village Academy-2nd Campus wants to locate in DPS, there is a "different" legal opinion. DPS didn't ask permission of APS to establish two of their charter schools within APS boundaries. But now DPS says GVA must get the permission of DPS' board--and acknowledges that permission won't be granted.
Unfortunately, questions and issues such as these are not easily resolved. In the past when issues have been interpreted differently the issue has been driven to ligitation. Let's hope in this situation that isn't at the cost of the hundreds of students purportedly on the waiting list at Global Village Academy.
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