The application filed with the 15-year charter belongs to a different school

What happened

The 15-year charter for the K-8 school says the school's approved application is attached as Appendix 1 and forms part of the contract. The document Broward published with that renewal item, named Original_App_5003.pdf, is a 586-page charter application for Somerset Academy's Somerset Bay Academy. It names Somerset Bay Academy on its cover sheet and never mentions North Lauderdale.

Why it matters to families

The application is not a formality. The charter says that where the contract and the application differ, the contract wins, which means the application still shapes what the school promised to do for the next 15 years. Right now the public copy of that promise is another school's.

The evidence

The cover sheet of the published file reads Name of Charter School: Somerset Bay Academy, dated 7/31/09, for a K-8 school of up to 900 students opening in 2010-11. The phrase Somerset Bay appears 113 times in the document and North Lauderdale does not appear at all. The renewal agreement's own Article 2 states the approved application is appended as Appendix 1 and is incorporated by reference. This shows what Broward published with the item; it does not establish what is attached to the signed contract held by the district.

The source