gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648
DURHAM -- County Commissioners joined Durham Public Schools officials Monday in voicing unease with a recent N.C. Court of Appeals ruling that appears likely to force them to devote more money to the county's charter schools.
The February ruling, which the state Supreme Court declined last month to review, could result in charter schools receiving more money per pupil than Durham Public Schools receives, school board attorney Ann Majestic told officials.
Commissioners weren't happy to hear that. "Holy cow," Commissioner Becky Heron said.
The Court of Appeals ruling stemmed from a Charlotte case and sided with charter-school advocates who maintained the school board there had shortchanged that county's charters through a variety of accounting gimmicks.
The three-judge appeals panel -- Democrats Linda McGee, Wanda Bryant and Martha Geer -- held that the Charlotte district had to share fund balance, Hurricane Katrina relief funds, state sales-tax reimbursements, allocations to preschool programs and donations with charter schools.
The common factor in those monies was that they flowed into the district's local current-expense fund, the account the Charlotte district and others like it maintain to fund day-to-day expenses. Charter schools are entitled to an equal share of current-expense money.
The only way to shield even things like money donated to public schools is to deposit them into a different account, Majestic said.
Commissioners like Heron appeared most concerned about the court's inclusion of fund balance -- the district's savings.
The Court of Appeals acknowledged school districts' worry that the move would enable charters to "double dip" from a revenue stream they'd tapped in previous fiscal years, thus claiming a bigger per-pupil allocation than public school districts.
But the judges said the districts' preferred interpretation of the law would enable them to take more than their pupils' proper share.
Meanwhile, school officials said local charter-school advocates are already scrutinizing DPS' accounting.
Board member Kirsten Kainz said she's already seen a query from a charter advocate about how much the district has spent on reading books for students in the early elementary grades.
Charter schools have been getting more attention from elected officials lately because of the involvement of one such school, the Healthy Start Academy, in a preservation dispute with neighbors and city officials.
The squabble highlighted the fact that charters generally aren't accountable to voters and local elected boards like the City Council, even when their actions appear to contradict local policy.
School officials have complained for years that charters -- Durham has seven of them -- siphon money away from public districts.
Charters are public schools, in the sense that they're open to all and tuition is free, but they're privately managed.
