The Bethlehem Area (Pa.) School District is preparing for a legal skirmish with a charter school over its plans to move to a new location and build a $50.4 million campus.
The Easton Express-Times reports that Bethlehem school board has hired a lawyer to represent the district during the Lehigh Valley Academy’s application for a new charter.
Rather than apply to amend its existing charter, Lehigh Valley Academy is requesting a new charter for its proposed campus in Bethlehem Township. Pursuing a new charter would give the academy appeal rights if its charter application is rejected; it wouldn't have appeal rights in a charter renewal process.
The academy's charter expires in December 2021, and the school has said it doesn’t want to break ground on a new facility without knowing it can relocate.
Lehigh Valley Academy’s two chartering school districts — Bethlehem Area and Saucon Valley — must sign off on its move. Under the state’s charter school law, a school may buy property without permission of its chartering district, but it cannot change locations.
Lehigh Valley Academy has 1,767 K-12 students from 16 districts across the Lehigh Valley, but the majority — 1,035 students — come from the Bethlehem Area School District.
The charter school asserts that by pursuing a new charter, it is complying with the legal opinion of the Saucon Valley district's lawyers.
The academy wants its new Bethlehem Township school to open in the fall of 2023-24, which means construction must start in the spring of 2021.
It wants to build a $45 million, 200,000-square-foot school building on farmland in Bethlehem Township. The school has a $5.4 million agreement to buy the land. The school’s lease for space on Valley Center Parkway expires in August 2023 so it needs to have the new school open for the 2023-24 school year.
Lehigh Valley Academy says the new school building will stabilize the school’s facilities costs and provide students with a better educational and extracurricular experience.
“By owning a building, LVA will have a fixed mortgage payment,” the school says. “This fiscally responsible decision addresses the issue of annual increases in rent costs, a concern echoed by Bethlehem Area School District during the last charter renewal process.”
The new building also would enable the school to get all of its students under one roof. It now is operating in several buildings in a Hanover Township office park.
