A Loudoun County charter school said a proposed change to make charters ineligible for capital improvement program funding would make it challenging to maintain and expand its facilities.
Hillsboro Charter Academy, which has 144 students and a long waiting list, is sounding the alarm about the possible consequences of the change the suburban Northern Virginia district’s school board is considering.
Under the proposal, which was discussed at a Loudoun County School Board meeting earlier this month, a charter school facility or campus would not be included in the school board’s Capital Improvement Program for “current or future capital improvements.”
A vote on the change could be scheduled for the end of September.
The pivot comes as the school is hoping to improve its physical infrastructure, including building new playgrounds and a new music room. Joe Luppino-Esposito, vice president of the charter school’s board of directors, said the move means “we’re really at risk of the school just not being able to operate because the building will fall into disrepair.”
WTOP has contacted School Board Member Kari LaBelle, whose Catoctin District includes the school campus, for comment on the school’s concerns.
“The part where it seems like the district is falling short and saying things like, ‘Every school needs a new playground, except for you guys in Middleburg, because you’re the only two charter schools, so you don’t get a new playground,’” Luppino-Esposito said. “This doesn’t really make any sense. Those kids are no different in the third grade in our schools versus the third grade in Mountain View or any of the other schools.”
The school has previously received capital funding for things such as an HVAC unit, Luppino-Esposito said, and the school board agreed to replace the roof. It’s funded from Loudoun County schools’ regular operating budget, and it gets paid the average per pupil figure. The division takes a 5% administrative fee, “and then that money is supposed to be dedicated primarily to student education, but that money also goes toward regular maintenance,” he said.
Teachers at the school work for the public school division, but leadership works for the private academy. Luppino-Esposito said there’s no tuition or “special permission to get in.”
The school system’s Capital Improvement Program is a long-term plan for maintaining school infrastructure and covering construction costs, among other things.
Some school board members have argued against the proposal, but Luppino-Esposito said “some people in the district are saying, ‘Well, worse come to worse, we can just close down the school and distribute the kids back to their home schools and so be it.’”
Caleb Kershner, who represents the Catoctin District on Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors, said not funding the capital needs of charter schools could be “a death knell, potentially.” The supervisors fund the school division’s budget but don’t directly fund a specific school.
“They are a form of a public school, so I don’t know why you would treat them any differently in terms of the funding and how you support them as you do with a traditional school,” Kershner told WTOP.
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