Savannah-Chatham County Schools pays three years of back funding to five charter schools

The funds the charter schools said the district owed to them stem from "other local revenue" the district received from sources other than local property taxes, federal funding, state funding, and the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) funds.

"'Other local revenue' could be from when the district sells a surplus building or rents a building or has interest income," explained Barry Lollis, executive director of Savannah Classical Academy. He added the district is supposed to allocate a share of those proceeds with the charter schools.

The charter schools had to ask for those funds when charter school leaders compared their allocations to the revenue sources listed on the district's financial reports posted on its website.

"As a matter of annual practice, the district has issued mid-term funding calculations to all district local charter schools. The mid-term calculations included additional 'local revenue' that were not part of the FY21 initial calculations," Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools said via email Wednesday afternoon. "To be consistent in our effort moving forward, the district decided to adjust the last three years, as well. This action is not part of any settlement or recent action from the 2021 Legislative Session. The district’s objective is to treat local charter schools fairly and in accordance with the law."

Payments were approved by the school board at its June 2 meeting. Payments to the schools cover fiscal years 2018, 2019, 2020, and are as follows:

• Coastal Empire Montessori: $8,128

• Tybee Island Maritime Academy: $6,976

• Oglethorpe Charter School: $27,913

• Savannah Classical Academy: $14,028

• Susie King Taylor Community School: $9,485

Charter schools are governed by their own boards and have some freedom in how they can spend this funding.

"We are using these monies to directly benefit students by providing resources for curriculum and instruction in our classrooms," wrote Peter Ulrich, principal of Tybee Island Maritime Academy, in an email on Monday.

"Most likely we will use our funds to go toward our capital campaign so that we can get our lower school and middle school back on the same campus," wrote Latrisha Chattin, director of Susie King Taylor Community School.

Trust but verify

Now that the back payments have been made, charter school leaders are hopeful future payments should continue each year; but the charter school leaders will also do their own verification.

"We will trust them initially, and then we'll verify through their financial records," Lollis added. "They're audited just like we are, [so we] will verify what we're getting from [the district] is accurate."

Stephanie Babcock-Wright, executive director of Coastal Empire Montessori Charter School (CEMCO), added that these payments are not part of the lawsuit filed by CEMCO and Savannah Classical Academy (SCA) regarding the "hold harmless" clause of their charters. That litigation is still on going.

“We are thankful that the district has listened to charter schools’ requests to review and allocate funding as required," said Lollis. “Chatham County charter schools are keen to share our expertise and experience with the district as we respond to legislative updates. The retroactive payments are a step in the right direction, but there is still more work to be done locally.”

Barbara Augsdorfer is the education and nonprofits reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Reach her at BAugsdorfer@gannett.com or on Twitter @Babs7983.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah-Chatham County Schools pays three years of back funding to five charter schools