Charter Schools

Our firm has been involved in every aspect of charter school law on behalf of public school districts, including review and critique of initial petitions, assisting boards with the approval/denial process, drafting memoranda of understanding (MOUs) for operational and special education services, assisting staff in monitoring approved charters, working with auditors, County Offices of Education and the State Department of Education in identifying and monitoring problem issues, and reviewing and assisting districts with renewal and revocation processes.

Our charter school attorneys have analyzed numerous petitions submitted to districts throughout the state and strategized with district officials on how to improve the charter petitions or, alternatively, how to best document the grounds for denial of the petition.

Our attorneys have negotiated agreements between charter schools and districts addressing all aspects of the charter's operations, including the provision of facilities and the costs charged to charter schools. We regularly assist districts in responding to requests for facilities made by charter schools under Proposition 39.

Some of the significant work our attorneys have performed regarding charter schools includes the following:

• Successfully prosecuted the revocation of the charter of Gateway Charter School and successfully defended Fresno Unified School District from $1.8 million in claims from the charter school's creditors. Some of the District's legitimate concerns about Gateway were later written into statute as express limits on a charter school's ability to operate outside of the chartering district.
• Advised and assisted West Park Elementary School District in revoking the charter of Rosalyn Charter School and avoided any litigation against the district challenging its decision.
• Assisted and advised the Board of the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District in overseeing and ultimately revoking the charter of a charter school with $2.5 million worth of assets which had incurred $3.5 million in long-term debt.
• Assisted and advised in the oversight and revocation of the charter of a home school charter school in North Monterey County Unified School District which persistently permitted the purchase of religious instructional materials with public funds.
• Successfully defended a charter school's challenge in Superior Court to the Pajaro Valley Unified School District's rights to control use of its facilities.
• Presented in the past at CSBA regarding charter school facilities issues and gave a presentation at the 2004 CSBA conference regarding successful strategies for rejecting charter school petitions brought by parents seeking to reopen a school closed by the District.
• Presented on the subject of the then-newly enacted Proposition 39 requirements before the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH).
• Assisted in the formation of "dependent" charter schools (charter schools under the direct control of the District Board), including Charter #25 created by the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District in 1993.
• Advised districts and addressed the State Board of Education on issues concerning district-wide charters.