Charter school sues district

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.

Millions of dollars are at stake.

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.

School Board Chairwoman Ruth Jordan said Apple Charter didn't ask for a building or rent in its original application to the board, and the school created a budget to cover those costs. But now the school has found a building without any input from the district, and is asking the district to pay for it or provide a comparable building for free, she said.

"To now come and send us a bill is ridiculous," Jordan said. "It says there is an effort on behalf of some persons to financially bankrupt education in Charleston County."

Jordan doesn't expect a ruling on the Supreme Court case until the end of this year, but she said the district needs an answer. The school system only has so much money, and not knowing its obligations puts the district at a disadvantage of not knowing how to operate, she said.

She anticipates the district's budget for the upcoming school year will include a provision that would raise taxes if the district were required by the courts to cover these costs for charter schools. If it didn't include the tax increase, the district couldn't continue to provide a quality education for all county students, she said.

Davi Dyer, attorney for the school, declined a request for comment, and Patricia Williams, the school's director, could not be reached for comment.

The Apple Charter isn't the first school to sue the district on the issue of Act 189. Greg Mathis Charter, a North Charleston high school for at-risk students, filed a lawsuit in September making the same request as the Apple Charter.

The school district and Greg Mathis Charter agreed to a stay of litigation, which put the school's lawsuit on hold until the district's lawsuit on the constitutionality of Act 189 was resolved. In that agreement, the district agreed to forgive some of the charter school's debt to the district on a monthly basis and cover the cost of the school obtaining required audits. Once the audits were paid for, the district agreed to give the school $3,750 per month to be used toward rent.

John Emerson, the district's attorney, said he hasn't had a chance to evaluate the Apple Charter School's lawsuit and that it would be premature to speculate how the district would respond to it.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.