The Los Angeles Unified School District must pay $7.1 million to a San Fernando Valley charter school for failing to provide it with rent-free classroom space.
Districts are required to share classrooms and other facilities with charter schools, but, for three years, Ivy Academia Entrepreneurial Charter did not get enough space for its 1,100 students.
In his ruling, arbitrator John Zebrowski said that the district’s failure to comply with the law harmed children because it forced the charter to use some money intended for educational programs to lease a building, which was inferior to what it would have received from the district.
A lawyer representing the district said it didn’t have the space during the years that it did not comply. He also pointed to a criminal case against two of Ivy Academia’s leaders.
