Hope Academy and Richland 2 have been entangled in a lawsuit since August

HOPE ACADEMY PLANNERS FILE LEGAL BRIEF IN LAWSUIT AGAINST RICHLAND 2

The battle over a proposed charter school in Northeast Richland County is heating up.

The planners of the Hope Academy Charter School have filed paperwork in South Carolina Administrative Law Court challenging Richland School District 2’s decision to deny the school’s charter, which was approved by the State Department of Education in July.

In the legal brief, the Hope Charter School Committee claims the district used a double standard to reject the charter. The group said the district “arbitrarily and capriciously” voted to deny the charter just weeks after it gave approval for the Richland 2 Charter High.

[VIEW THE ENTIRE LEGAL BRIEF]

“From the beginning, our goal was simple: to work with the local school district to provide a world-class education for our young people, while empowering parents with another public school option,” said Michael Letts, a member of the proposed school’s planning committee. “We feel our school would be an asset to Richland 2, and we hate to have to take this course of action. Still, we met each and every provision of the Charter School Act, and we feel the district violated the law by arbitrarily denying this charter.”

The school’s planners filed suit against the district in August, claiming there was “one standard for the charter school [the district] wanted, which would divert at-risk students from Richland 2 schools to the charter school, and a separate standard for charter schools that actually give parents a flexible, public-school alternative.”

Last week’s legal brief came at the same Gov. Mark Sanford went to Washington to meet with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to request $300 million in federal funds for use in converting failing public schools into charter schools.

The proposed Hope Charter School would be a year-round school serving kindergarten through fifth grade and offering an alternative for parents who prefer for their children to remain in public school.