RS 17:3982 Local school boards; duties
§3982. Local school boards; duties
A.(1)(a) Local school boards shall comply with R.S. 17:3983 and shall review and formally act upon each proposed charter within thirty days of its submission and in the order in which submitted. In doing such review, the local school board shall determine whether each proposed charter complies with the law and rules, whether the proposal is valid, complete, financially well-structured, and educationally sound, and whether it offers potential for fulfilling the purposes of this Chapter. The local board shall engage in an application review process that complies with the latest Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing, as promulgated by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and shall provide for an independent evaluation of the charter proposal by a third party with educational, organizational, legal, and financial expertise.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph, school boards which govern a local system that has been declared to be in academic crisis, as defined in R.S. 17:10.6, shall not consider, review, or act upon charter applications for a Type 1 charter school and shall notify the proponents of any pending Type 1 charter proposal or any newly submitted Type 1 charter proposal that the board is ineligible to act on such applications and that each such application may, therefore, be submitted to the state board as a Type 2 proposal pursuant to R.S. 17:3983(A)(2)(a)(ii).
(2) Such formal review and action does not require final approval or disapproval of such charter school proposal within thirty days, but within such time the local school board shall indicate whether it is interested in working with the charter school group on its proposal and what specific time line and procedures the local school board will follow prior to coming to a final decision. If the local school board expresses within thirty days no interest in working with the group, or if no final decision is received within sixty days after the submission of the proposal, then the chartering group may submit its proposal to the state board for its review. The local board shall make public the process used to review any charter proposals received.
B. Local school boards shall make available to chartering groups any vacant school facilities or any facility slated to be vacant for lease or purchase at fair market value. In the case of a Type 2 charter school created as a result of a conversion, the facility and all property within the existing school shall also be made available to that chartering group under similar terms. In return for the use of the facility and its contents, the chartering group shall pay a share of the local school board's bonded indebtedness to be calculated in the same manner as set forth in R.S. 17:1990(C)(2)(a)(i). If such facilities were constructed at no cost to the local school board, then such facilities including all equipment, books, instructional materials, and furniture within such facilities shall be provided to the charter school at no cost.
Acts 1995, No. 192, §1, eff. June 14, 1995; Acts 1997, No. 447, §1, eff. June 30, 1997; Acts 1999, No. 14, §1; Acts 1999, No. 757, §1, eff. July 2, 1999; Acts 2005, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 35, §1, eff. Nov. 30, 2005; Acts 2009, No. 123, §1, eff. June 26, 2009.