21-3-306. Application for establishing charter schools; conversion of existing schools.
(a) Any person may apply to the district board for the establishment of a new charter school or a charter school within a school to be located within the school district.
Note: Effective 7/1/2022 this subsection will read as:
(a) Any person may apply to an authorizer for the establishment of a new charter school. The applicant shall have the right to determine which authorizer to apply to and may apply to a different authorizer for renewal of a charter. The state loan and investment board may reject a renewal application from an existing charter school if the renewal is to avoid necessary corrective measures, including closure of the charter school, identified by the authorizer.
(b) Administrators and teachers employed by the district, parents of students enrolled in the district and any special district advisory group comprised of district residents may apply to the district board to convert an existing public school operating within the school district to a charter school. An application filed under this subsection shall demonstrate the support of not less than fifty percent (50%) of the teachers employed by the school who teach at the school proposed to be converted, and the parents of fifty percent (50%) of all students attending the school proposed to be converted.
(c) Instead of establishing a new charter school or a converted charter school under this section, a district board and a charter school applicant may by mutual agreement establish a charter school within a school. A charter school operated under this subsection is a separate school and shall have the rights and obligations provided under this article for new and converted charter schools. The agreement between the school board and the charter school may provide that faculty and staff at the charter school may work in both the charter school established under this subsection and other district schools. If district students attend both the charter school established under this subsection and another district school, the students shall be counted for each school in proportion to the percentage of their time spent in each school.
(d) If a school district denies an application to convert a school to a charter school under subsection (b) of this section, the applicant may appeal to the state loan and investment board. If the state loan and investment board approves the application, it shall be the authorizer of the charter school. [NOTE: This section will be effective 7/1/2022.]