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Palmer Charter seeks immediate relief from court

The school year at a city charter could come to an abrupt end this week for its nearly 1,300 students.

The school year at a city charter could come to an abrupt end this week for its nearly 1,300 students.

The troubled Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School on Wednesday asked Common Pleas Court to order the Philadelphia School District to hand over nearly $1.4 million immediately or the charter could close Friday.

The complaint and a request for the emergency order were filed shortly after noon. A hearing was scheduled for Thursday morning.

Palmer, who founded the school that bears his name, said in an interview that he does not expect the school to close Friday.

However, he said he did not know how the school could survive beyond the end of the month without more money.

"We can't keep making promises to people about our ability to pay them sometime in the future," Palmer said. The school claims the district has underpaid it nearly $1.4 million over a period of four months.

Yet in hand-delivered letters to Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and other officials, Palmer warned that as of Friday his K-12 charter school with 1,290 K-12 students will "no longer be able to operate and will be forced to close its doors" if it does not have the money.

District spokesman Fernando Gallard said that as a result of Palmer's letter to Hite, "we are preparing for the possibility of a school closure. We will be looking at what viable options we can provide for families at other schools."

In its filings, Palmer also is asking the court to require the district to fully fund its operations for the 2014-15 academic year.

The suit is the latest development in the charter's effort to stay open amid a long-running battle with the district over enrollment.

The district maintains the school should have no more than the 675 student maximum it agreed to when it signed its 2005 charter agreement.

Palmer is seeking the $1.38 million that the school district has refused to pay for the additional students since the state Supreme Court ruled in May that the school was bound by the terms of its 2005 agreement.

Citing the high court's ruling, the state Department of Education has rejected Palmer's requests to deduct the amount from the district's share of state funds and send the money to the charter. Before the court's decision, the department had paid for the disputed students.

The charter disputes the district's and state's interpretation of the ruling.

Meanwhile, the School Reform Commission has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 15 on revoking Palmer's charter on multiple grounds, including poor academic performance and financial problems.