This Philly charter owed the school district $30M and is settling for $2.5M
The state had initially ordered WPACES to pay $30 million for enrolling hundreds more students than it was legally allowed.
A charter school that the state ruled owed the Philadelphia School District $30 million has settled for a fraction of what officials initially said it must pay.
West Philadelphia Achievement Elementary Charter School — which enrolled hundreds more students than it was legally allowed to for more than a decade — reached an agreement with the district to pay $2.5 million, a 92% decrease in its bill.
WPACES had gone to court to freeze the state ruling ordering it to pay the $30 million.
Stacy Gill-Phillips, chief executive, had said the school could not continue to operate if it had to pay the full $30 million and contended that WPACES was not responsible to pay. She said that the district treats Black-led schools unfairly, and that she had been given approval to add students by a prior administration.
» READ MORE: This West Philly charter owes the school district $30 million for students it overenrolled. Should it have to pay?
Gill-Phillips had called the dispute a “classic David vs. Goliath” situation.
WPACES, at 67th and Callowhill Streets, agreed to a cap of 400 students, but has overenrolled since 2010. Last year, it enrolled 650, but it has had as many as 700 students some years.
Under the terms of the settlement, which was approved by the school board at its Thursday meeting, WPACES will pay the district $500,000 a year for five years.
The district agreed not to use WPACES’ overenrollment “as a basis for nonrenewal or revocation,” and the school said it would not use the district’s actions “as a defense in any future nonrenewal or revocation proceedings, if any should be instituted.”
WPACES can have up to 640 students for the coming school year, but its cap eventually drops to 475 students by 2029-30, under the terms of the agreement.
The school charter will be considered part of the district’s forthcoming 2025-26 renewal cohort; under that process, WPACES can formally ask for an increase in student population — though there is no guarantee the board will agree to bump up the student cap.
Charter schools receive per-student payments from their home districts based on the amount the school system spent on its students the prior year.
For the 2024-25 school year, Philadelphia brick-and-mortar charters receive $12,754.11 per student and $40,053.17 for each student who receives special-education services.