Fed up with the red tape, officials from a startup charter school are going to court Monday to try to force the city inspections needed before the academy can open its doors to students.
Utopian Academy for the Arts says Riverdale has kept the school from opening with a confusing round of requests and paperwork. Utopian’s 200 students were schedule to begin their school year this past Monday.
“We want the judge to order Riverdale to proceed with issuing a certificate of occupancy inspection,” Utopian’s attorney Rob Fortson said Friday. “The city won’t let the fire marshal inspect the building. So the fire marshal hasn’t been able to check the building in order to issue a certificate of occupancy.”
Riverdale City attorney L’Erin Barnes declined to comment. Superior Court Judge Matthew Simmons will hear the case at 9 a.m. Monday.
School officials spent this week trying to sort out what they need to do to officially open. Fortson said Riverdale is demanding that Utopian apply for a tax-exempt business license. Public schools do not need any kind of business license to operate in Georgia, he said.
There also is a dispute over who holds the lease on the building owned by the Clayton County school board. Downtown Development Authority is supposed to have the lease. The school board signed a $1 a year, 10-year lease with the DDA last year. But DDA, which has been inactive since March, gave the lease to the Southern Crescent Centre for Innovation, which then inked deals with Utopian and other tenants in the building.
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