Fort Wayne Community Schools followed state law when the district approved transferring ownership of a vacant elementary school to the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority, the district said Monday.

The release is in response to a lawsuit filed late last year by the Indiana Public Charter Schools Association, which sued the district and airport authority in an attempt to stop the property transfer, claiming that it breaks state code.

According to the release, the school district has filed a counterclaim to the charter school association's lawsuit and is asking a judge to allow the transfer of its property to the airport authority. But no record of that claim could be found in the official case file late Monday.

The lawsuit centers on the former Pleasant Center Elementary School, which was closed by FWCS in a cost-cutting move in June 2010. The charter school association, which represents Indiana's 65 public charter schools, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Timothy L. Johnson Academy.

In the suit, the charter association claims the transfer violates a new state law that took effect this past July and requires public schools to make vacant school buildings available to charter schools for lease or purchase for $1.

According to the suit, the school district did not keep the vacant building on a list kept by the Indiana Department of Education for 48 months, as required by law, so as to allow charter schools an opportunity to buy or lease the building.

But in the FWCS release, Superintendent Wendy Robinson said the school district broke no laws.

"We followed Indiana code in transferring this property to another governmental entity," she said. "The airport authority has a legitimate interest in this property and one that is important for economic development near the airport. We do not believe state law should allow a request by one entity to trump the interests of all other entities."

According to the FWCS release, its administrators began working with the airport authority and the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance shortly after Pleasant Center closed in 2010, with the first meeting between those entities taking place in November of that year. By March 2011, the airport authority was able to conduct an environmental study on the property, and in September formally requested if it could acquire the property.

"As negotiation with the airport reached its conclusion, FWCS received notice that a charter school was interested in the property," the release said. "As FWCS had already reached an agreement with the airport for the property, the board moved forward with the transfer."

jeffwiehe@jg.net

Verbatim

• To read the district's statement in full, click here.