As the school year ended, the BASD board of directors had one outstanding decision, dating all the way to late 2017, which had to be wrapped up. Since November, the board has known that it would need to approve the charter for the Lehigh Valley Charter HS for the Arts, which was set to expire June 30. The district conducted a full investigation of the charter school, and had only a few small recommendations to improve the curriculum and address educational needs. However, the board had been holding that approval since November, in the hope that the Pennsylvania Auditor General would review and comment on the pending dispute between BASD and the charter school.

Disputes between charter schools and their sponsoring districts are not uncommon, and usually center around concerns that the charter may not be meeting the educational requirements of students, or concerns that the district is not properly calculating charter funding. But neither is the case in this dispute, which is why it was recommended to the auditor general instead of the PA Department of Education or the local court system.

The district contends that, when constructing the new school building on Third Street, the charter should have been bound by the rules of the Pennsylvania Public School code, and should have followed the strict bidding process laid out therein. The charter disagrees, and believes they followed all bidding requirements set forth under charter school laws. The dispute hinges not only on which laws should have been followed, but also the impact of the result. The district noted that at the time of the bid award, the charter still owed a debt to the seller of their property, and that seller and the winning contractor are both partially owned or operated by the same unnamed individual.

While the auditor general’s office had informed Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy months ago that they were reviewing the allegations, and they planned to return a decision by the end of the school year, the district was unable to obtain that guidance to date. Therefore with some frustration, and a detailed report recommending approval, the board reluctantly voted to approve the charter’s renewal.

The renewal will be voted into full approval at the June 25 school board meeting, and will run from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023. It is unclear when the auditor general will return a decision, and what, if any, impact that will have on the future of the charter agreement.