Fort Myers, FL
Although it's being done at the corporate level there is no way this bodes well for the relationship between the our two charter schools and Gateway residents. The Charter schools have filed a lawsuit against the community and the Lee County tax collector for assessments paid to Gateway in 2007 and 2008. The schools have not paid the assessments for 2009 and 2010.
The lawsuit will surely put an additional strain on the relationship between the community and the schools. Both schools already have parent pickup problems they have been unable to fix to the satisfaction of the community. Now they are asking us to refund an enormous amount of money that will have a significant impact on our budget. Attorney e-mail exchanges about the assessments have been very testy already.
The Gateway Board of Supervisors will hold a closed-door session, to discuss how to deal with the lawsuit, on June 3rd. The board already requested an opinion from the Florida Attorney General on the matter.
District attorney Tony Pires says "if the district loses, there will be an immediate negative financial impact" on Gateway.
The Charter School attorney claims a change made by the state legislature in 2007 removed all requirements for charter schools to pay any special assessments. Pires is recommending the board get a second opinion from the Florida Attorney Generals office.
The total money currently at issue is: $46,581.53 [FY2007/2008] refund request plus possibility of approximately $35,000 to repay certificate holders as to assessments for FY 2008/2009 and non payment of FY 2009/2010 assessments of approximately $30,000 for a total current impact to the District of approx. $111,561.53".
