District Denies All Charters; Lake Worth Classical Appeals; Appeals Board Overturns District on Curriculum, Management; Application Falls on Budget as District Denial Nixed Grant Opportunity

A cruel end, with no winners.

After having its application denied by the the Palm Beach County School Board on Nov. 5 (along with all outstanding charter applications submitted last year), the Lake Worth Classical Academy appealed to the state.

That appeal was heard in Tallahassee on Monday, March 16 by the state's Charter School Appeal Commission.

The Commission voted that the school was not denied due process under the law in the school district's consideration of its application. The Commission, however, voted to uphold the curriculum section and the management section of the school's application, overriding the school district and affirming that both met the requirements of the law.

The only section remaining that the district had marked as not meeting the standard was the budget section.

Margaret Menge, presenting on behalf of the school founders, told the Commission that given the school district's denial of the application, the school had lost the opportunity to apply for the grant from the Charter School Growth Fund that she and the other founders had identified as the seed money to start the school. She indicated that a member of the group of founders was working to raise capital to start several classical charter schools in Florida through a wealth fund manager.

The Commission voted to uphold the district's denial of the application based on the budget section alone, and to recommend a denial to the State Board of Education, which will meet in April.

The school has the option to resubmit the application this year, but would need to identify a source of approximately $200,000 in funds to rehabilitate a building, purchase books, furniture and supplies and train teachers.