WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A years-long funding fight pitting the School District of Palm Beach County against charter schools is taking a new turn.
After voters overwhelmingly approved a tax hike in 2018 to benefit district schools and exclude charters, the charter schools fought back and now claimed a new victory involving your tax money.
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A 43-page ruling issued on Feb. 24 by the Fourth District Court of Appeal effectively reverses two previous legal victories for the School District of Palm Beach County.
Now the district could be forced to share millions of dollars with charter schools that they feel is their fair share. But the school district said it's following the will of the voters.
"I was very upset, and I'll leave it at that. I was very upset," said Palm Beach County Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy in an exclusive interview with WPTV on Thursday.
In an already unusual school year, Fennoy said this latest legal setback was unexpected.
"I didn't see this one coming," Fennoy said.
Back in 2018, voters passed a property tax hike with 72% of the vote. The referendum had a specific language that excluded charter schools, stating that the money would be used for the "operational needs of non-charter District schools to fund school safety equipment, hire additional school police and mental health professionals, fund arts, music, physical education, career and Choice program teachers, and improve teacher pay."
"It was legal at that time," Dr. Fennoy said.
The tax increase is bringing in about $200 million a year for the School District of Palm Beach County, going toward things like more school police officers, mental health resources, preserving fine arts and Choice programs, and teacher raises.
"It was always about fairness. It was always about treating everybody equitably," said Andy Binns, the governing board chairman for Palm Beach Maritime Academy, one of the charter schools that sued the Palm Beach County School Board for a share of the pot. "We told them up-front that this was not fair because they were going to exclude charter school children from the grouping."
Following that lawsuit, a legal battle played out over the last several years between the School District of Palm Beach County and charter schools:
- Aug. 23, 2019: Palm School County School Board prevails with summary judgment in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida
- April 22, 2020: Fourth District Court of Appeal rules in favor of Palm School County School Board (2-1) with three-judge panel
- May 20, 2020: Charter schools request "en banc" review of ruling by Fourth District Court of Appeal
- Sept. 15, 2020: Fourth District Court of Appeal rules it will rehear the case with full panel of judges
- Feb. 24, 2021: Fourth District Court of Appeal reverses court’s earlier decision (7-4)
The latest ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal claimed the school district's ballot language was illegal, violating a state law that said "students enrolled in a charter school, regardless of the sponsorship, shall be funded as if they are in a basic program or a special program, the same as students enrolled in other public schools in the school district."
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"The question is these are additional revenue-generating opportunities that the district is afforded to do," Fennoy said.
If the School District of Palm Beach County is forced to share the money, about $22 million a year would go to the charter schools.
"We're hoping it's not retroactive and we have to go back, because we'd have to come up with $45 million that's already been spent," said Mike Burke, the chief financial officer for the School District of Palm Beach County.
Burke said that if the ruling sticks, they'll have to look closely at all budget items, including teacher raises.
"More than half the money goes to teacher pay, so it's going to be hard to escape revisiting those supplements," Burke said.
It's a factor that Binns said demonstrates exactly why the charter schools want their share of the money.
"We lost several teachers to the district because they were getting paid the extra money by the district," Binns said.
Renatta Espinoza, the principal of the Academy for Positive Learning, another charter school that sued the Palm Beach County School Board, released this written statement to WPTV about the legal victory:
"We are delighted with the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in favor of Palm Beach County charter schools. The students attending charter schools are public school students. As the court determined, these students are entitled under law to receive the same leveling of funding from the tax referendum as their peers attending District schools. Students should not be treated inequitably simply because their families chose to send them to a public charter school."
"The retro part is very, very troubling because we've done everything that we promised the taxpayers would do," Fennoy said.
For now, the school district said it will keep up the fight, appealing the ruling any way possible, including possibly to the Florida Supreme Court, while also saving where it can.
"You will hear about us making adjustments within the organization to put that money aside until the final ruling is made," Fennoy said.
"The voters should be upset because they should start wondering what their vote meant now if the court of appeals can reverse a decision against the will of the voters," Burke said.
For both sides, it's now a waiting game to see what the court decides to do next.
"We're not planning to cut a check right away," Burke said. "It may, though, as we make our budget for next year. We likely have to plan for this potential outcome and start setting that money aside until we have a final verdict."
The current referendum goes until 2023 and, according to a new state amendment passed by the Florida Legislature in 2019, any future referendums must be shared with charter schools.
For more information about the referendum passed in 2018 and how the funds are being used by the School District of Palm Beach County, click here.