Arguing that a new charter-school law could violate their constitutional rights, two Central Florida school districts are trying to temporarily block the state Board of Education from ruling in a pair of disputes about proposed charter schools.
The Polk and Seminole County school boards filed lawsuits last week against the state board and Renaissance Charter School, Inc., which unsuccessfully sought approval from the districts this year to open charter schools.
Renaissance in November appealed the rejections to the state board. But Polk and Seminole contend that a new state law prevents them from taking part in the appeals to try to counter Renaissance's arguments.
The lawsuits, filed in Leon County circuit court, come just months after lawmakers took a series of steps aimed at expanding the use of charter schools, which are publicly funded but are operated by private organizations and are free from many typical regulations.
Charter-school supporters say the programs offer more educational choices to students. But even before this year's legislation, some school boards have clashed with charter-school operators about whether new programs should be allowed to open.
The Polk and Seminole cases center on a legislative change that created a designation of "high performing" charter schools. Operators of high-performing charter schools can apply to open similar schools in other districts, with the law making it harder for school boards to reject those applications.
Also, as part of the high-performing school issue, lawmakers created a different appeal process than is used for other proposed charter schools.
Renaissance, which is based in Broward County, filed applications Aug. 1 with Polk and Seminole counties to open schools that would replicate at least one high-performing school elsewhere.
But Polk and Seminole later rejected the applications, in part because they said Renaissance wanted to open schools that would serve children in kindergarten through eighth grade -- but in each case was relying on replicating a high-performing middle school that served only grades six through eight.
Renaissance appealed the decisions Nov. 7, and the state Board of Education is required to act on the appeals by early February. Cheryl Etters, a Department of Education spokeswoman, said the agency could not comment on pending lawsuits. An attorney for Renaissance could not be reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon.
In the lawsuits, Polk and Seminole contend that lawmakers effectively shut them out of the appeal process before the state board. Also, they are barred from challenging the state board's decisions through the Division of Administrative Hearings -- and contend that they also might be prevented from filing challenges in a state appeals court.
The counties are seeking temporary injunctions to block the state board from acting until a judge can rule on whether Polk and Seminole should be allowed to take part in the appeals and whether Renaissance's proposal for replicating a high-performing middle school is acceptable.
As another option, the districts ask that the court find the law dealing with the appeals process to be an unconstitutional violation of their rights.
"The entering of an injunction will serve the public interest in that citizens of Seminole County will suffer injury if their school board is denied the right to defend on appeal the denial of Renaissance's charter school application and the (state board) proceeds to approve the application on the basis that the educational program of a middle school serving grades 6-8 can be replicated by forming a charter school to serve grades K-8,'' the Seminole County lawsuit says.
