Phila. Judge Nixes Emergency Funds For Charter School Tussling With School District
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An embattled Philadelphia charter school was weighing its options today, after a judge denied its request for emergency funding from the School District of Philadelphia.
The fight to stay open will now be harder for the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School. After a brief hearing, Common Pleas Court judge Nina Wright Padilla emphatically turned down the school's request seeking an immediate $1.4 million from the school district amid a dispute over its enrollment cap.
The judge called the school's lawsuit a "travesty," adding it would be "irresponsible" for the school to pursue the case further.
"I think it's irresponsible for her to even make the comment," the school's founder, Walter Palmer, said afterward. "She's never been to the school. She's never seen the parents. She's never seen the staff."
Palmer (center of photo, in background) refused to say how long his school, now with 1,300 students, could remain open, with the district only paying for the maximum of 675 he school agreed to in the school's charter.
During the hearing, Palmer attorney Robert Gamburg cited a May 2014 letter from schools superintendent Wiliam Hite assuring parents that the Palmer School would open for the 2014-15 school year. But the judge agreed with school district attorneys who said that letter did not address the school district paying Palmer for more than the maximum 675 students in its charter.
