Schools want charter aid returned

As required, the Pasco district forwarded state aid to Deerwood Academy, which folded. The district wants the state to replace the funds.

LAND O'LAKES - The Pasco County School Board on Thursday enthusiastically supported its school chief's plans to seek state reimbursement for a failed charter school.

Deerwood Academy charter school closed this month with an estimated $200,000 debt, the bulk of that owed to the district.

"I feel very strongly that we have gone way beyond . . . to help this school be a success," board member Marge Whaley said. "This isn't right."

Superintendent John Long said he wants to hold the state Department of Education accountable for the financial loss, because it is state education law that binds districts to pass public money on to privately run charter schools.

"We shouldn't be giving out money," board member Pam Coulter said.

Deerwood closed Oct. 10 because it lacked enough students to generate the state dollars needed to stay afloat. The state funds schools according to the student count within a three-week period that ended Oct. 17.

Long told board members that because Deerwood closed in the middle of that period, it would receive no state money. In the same way the district funnels money to traditional public schools, it had already apportioned dollars to the charter school based on early enrollment expectations.

"All the money we gave them, they never earned," Long said.

Long said he would poll other superintendents to see if others have experienced similar problems.

In related business, the board agreed to postpone until Nov. 4 whether to approve a charter application from Academies of America. The administration recommended the board reject the application.

The company in Ormond Beach asked to open a middle school and an elementary school in the 2004-05 school year in west Pasco.

Academies of America submitted a "last-minute request" that the district postpone the vote, charter liaison Max Ramos told the board. The charter foundation's leaders said that they didn't have enough time to respond.

Ramos detailed for the board all the communications he had had with the charter school since Oct. 10 concerning the administration's recommendation and the impending board vote.

"We have made extraordinary efforts to communicate with Academies of America," Ramos said.

The board agreed to give the charter corporation the benefit of the doubt.

"It's not going to hurt us to delay," Coulter said.

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