Allen County looks to be the test case for a new state requirement for public schools to make vacant buildings available to charter schools for lease or sale for $1. That law deserves a challenge.

Fort Wayne Community Schools is contesting a lawsuit filed by the Indiana Public Charter Schools Association to block the transfer of FWCS’ former Pleasant Center Elementary School to the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority. At the heart of the issue is legislation that appears to have been hastily considered and adopted because the district properly followed existing procedures in Indiana code to transfer property from one governmental unit to another.

“They drafted these statutes so quickly that they did not parse them,” said FWCS board President Mark GiaQuinta, an attorney. “We think we fall under one of the provisions that allows us to sell the school.”

Pleasant Center closed at the end of the 2009-10 school year, a victim of state budget cuts to education spending. The airport authority approached the district shortly after that, and representatives from the authority and FWCS met in late November to discuss the property. Last March, the airport authority requested approval to do an appraisal and environmental study of the property and made a formal request in September to acquire it. Title transfer documents were drafted over the next couple of months, and the transfer measure went before the school board on Dec. 12.

In the meantime, the General Assembly approved the new state law. FWCS properly reported the Pleasant Center building as unused property, and it was added to a list of about 30 schools statewide.

In late November – almost 18 months after Pleasant Center was closed – Mike Nickelson, board president for the Timothy L. Johnson Academy, contacted GiaQuinta to discuss the school property. Nickelson’s account suggests that interest in the vacant school didn’t originate with the local charter board but with Indianapolis officials.

“The Timothy L. Johnson Academy board received a notice of a vacant school in our district as per the new state law,” Nickelson wrote in an email. “We sent a letter of inquiry to the district soon after we were notified by the state as to how to do this.”

The new provision, part of a sweeping charter school law, requires the Department of Education to compile a list of unused school properties.

“We received a response from the district that they had a pending transfer with the airport authority, which had expressed prior interest in it,” Nickelson wrote. “After the transfer was approved and announced by FWCS, the Indiana Public Charter Schools Association contacted us to inform us of the possible legal action.”

Missing from the lawsuit challenging the sale is a focus on what is best for the community and taxpayers. The deal appeared to serve the district and airport authority well, relieving FWCS of maintenance or demolition costs and allowing the airport to proceed with long-term planning.

In their haste to assist charter schools, lawmakers didn’t consider other concerns. What if a private developer wanted to buy a school for commercial or industrial use – creating new jobs and returning the property to the tax rolls? Why should a charter’s facility needs outweigh a traditional district’s overall budget needs?

The heavy volume of education bills approved in the last session almost guaranteed poor policy would emerge. Just months after it went into effect, the charter school provision’s flaws already are showing, with the courts left to clarify the mess.