West Philadelphia Achievement Charter Elementary School officials say they are not responsible for paying $30 million to the Philadelphia School District.
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A West Philadelphia charter school has appealed to Commonwealth Court to put an emergency freeze on a state order that would make the school pay the Philadelphia School District $30 million for hundreds of students it overenrolled over more than a decade.
The news came as officials and parents from West Philadelphia Achievement Charter Elementary School told the school board Thursday night that the school has done nothing wrong.
“The district treats Black-led schools like WPACES with bias,” Stacy Gill-Phillips, the school’s founder and chief executive officer, testified at a school board meeting. “This is not WPACES’ fault.”
» READ MORE: This West Philly charter owes the school district $30 million for students it overenrolled. Should it have to pay?
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WPACES, at 67th and Callowhill Streets, was recently ordered by Angela Fitterer, the state’s interim acting secretary of education, to repay the district the equivalent of what it has received for enrolling more than 200 extra students a year since 2010, when the school moved into a new building.
WPACES now educates about 650 students, but has enrolled more than 700 some years. Its cap, per its 2006 charter, is 400 students.
Charters are given per-student payments from districts based on how many students they enroll annually. This year, Philadelphia charters get $12,754.11 per student and $40,053.17 for students who receive special-education services.
Gill-Phillips said she told charter school officials that to afford a new building, WPACES would need to enroll more students, and was given approval to do so. But the school’s legally binding charter never reflected an increased cap.
“Taxpayers should not be forced to pay the school district $30 million for students it did not educate. WPACES spent those funds on the children’s education and that should not be an issue of litigation,” Gill-Phillips said. “Therefore, we call on the mayor, City Council, state representatives, senators, and our governor to assist in a resolution in this matter of poor policy, delays in procedures, and selective preferential treatment of charters.”
Khadijah Amon, parent of two children who attend WPACES, said she was upset with an “undeniable bias against charter schools. I ask, must survival and growth be a constant fight?”
WPACES is a strong school where her daughters thrive, Amon said, but it’s under attack. (Gill-Phillips said the school cannot afford to pay the district $30 million.)
Board president Reginald Streater said the board and charter office “remain open to continuing discussions through the proper mechanism.”
Lawyers for the charter school appealed PDE’s decision to Commonwealth Court last week, arguing that Fitterer’s order was illegal and should not stand.