Local School Fights Case Federally to Avoid Shutdown

by Op-Ed, Kenneth Battle, Vice Chair, CAA Board of Directors

There’s some nasty business going on in Columbia, and it’s threatening to inject more chaos and turmoil into the lives of young people for whom hope is a frayed rope that is too easily dropped.

The South Carolina Public Charter School District is trying to shut down Charleston Advancement Academy (CAA) for reasons that are questionable, and utilizing a process that lacks transparency. The District claims on its website to be committed to students and parents, but its actions are causing inexcusable hardship for over 400 students and their families.

First, some background: CAA was founded five years ago as a public charter school with a mission to provide a comprehensive education to high school students who struggle in a traditional classroom setting. Many of our students come from racial and ethnic minority populations, and many are socioeconomically disadvantaged. We are proud to have graduated nearly 200 students who otherwise were at extremely high risk of never completing high school.

In 2019, the CAA Board of Directors moved to fire the school’s operator, a for-profit Chicago company that provides charter school management services, over security lapses at one of our two campuses and the company’s failure to provide requested financial documentation. Our board did so in the interest of our students’ wellbeing. This triggered troubling and bizarre behavior by the District, which ignored our reasons for terminating the contract and exercised authority it did not have by directing CAA to keep the management company operating the school, and to continue paying its exorbitant management fees (85% of all taxpayer-funded revenue collected by CAA went to the management company). A week later, the District took the unusual step of writing every member of CAA’s faculty and staff to declare itself the school’s operating authority and nullify administrative decisions previously made by our board in its lawful discretion. This undermined the CAA board’s ability to effectively manage the school during the ensuing months.

While tying the CAA board’s hands, the District was simultaneously helping the same Chicago company that we fired set up a rival charter school two miles down the road from our Rivers Avenue campus. We don’t believe that was a coincidence.

It had become clear to our board that the District was motivated by something other than the best interests of students and their families, so we finally applied to transfer our charter to another charter school authorizer in South Carolina. We were looking forward to moving on with an organization whose focus on serving vulnerable students and families was more aligned with our vision. The District denied this request in January, and at the very same meeting, with no advance public notice and no opportunity for the public to object or raise questions, the District unlawfully passed a surprise motion to revoke CAA’s charter effective June 30. After the meeting concluded, the District’s staff petitioned a court to essentially seize the school’s assets.

CAA has acted in full compliance with the law and regulations governing charter schools. CAA has increased graduations and improved outcomes for students every single year since we were founded. We are an open book. Why the disrespect from the District? Why the disregard for norms and processes? Why the lack of public deliberation and explanation? Why the breezy willingness to inject more harm, chaos and disruption into the lives of young people who are already at risk?

We, the CAA Board of Directors, are tired of the District bullying us and trying to harm our school. We’re tired of them treating schools like ours that serve minority students differently from schools that serve predominantly white students. And we’re not going to tolerate it. We have brought a federal lawsuit against the District aimed at keeping our school open, so we can continue helping Charleston’s most vulnerable young adults.

The sole focus of the CAA board, our faculty, staff and administrators is the education and wellbeing of the students entrusted to our care. They’re fighting for themselves and we’re right there with them, providing the tools and support they need to maximize their potential as people. We are inspired by their determination to overcome obstacles and challenges in their lives. We’re not about to let unaccountable District bureaucrats in Columbia erect more.