49-13-121 - Term of charter Renewal.
49-13-121. Term of charter Renewal.
(a) New public charter schools, conversion schools and all renewals of charter agreements shall be for ten-year periods.
(b) No later than October 1 of the year prior to the year in which the charter expires, the governing body of a public charter school shall submit a renewal application to the chartering authority. The chartering authority shall rule by resolution, at a regular or special called meeting, on whether to approve or deny the renewal application. The decision of the chartering authority shall be based on the report and evaluation provided for in § 49-13-120. If the original charter application was appealable to the state board of education, a decision by the chartering authority to deny renewal may be appealed by the governing body, within ten (10) days of the decision to deny, to the state board of education. If the state board of education directs the LEA to approve the renewal of the charter agreement, the public charter school shall continue to operate for the prescribed period of ten (10) academic years. A decision by the state board of education to deny the renewal of a charter agreement shall be final. No appeal may be taken.
(c) A public charter school renewal application shall contain a report of the school's operations, including students' standardized test scores, financial statements and performance audits of the nine (9) years preceding the date of the renewal application. The department of education shall develop guidelines that govern the charter renewal application process.
(d) An interim review of a charter school shall be conducted by the LEA under guidelines developed by the department of education in the fifth year of a charter school's initial period of operation and also in the fifth year following any renewal of a charter agreement. Such guidelines shall require a charter school to submit to the LEA a report on the progress of the school in achieving the goals, objectives, pupil performance standards, content standards and other terms of the approved charter agreement.
[Acts 2002, ch. 850, § 22; 2005, ch. 414, § 7; 2009, ch. 555, §§ 9-12.]