The St. Johns County School District is one of dozens of districts across the state that recently received notices from Mater Academy, a charter school based in Miami.
The notices are demanding that Mater Academy be able to “co-locate” with public schools, taking over part of the school buildings rent-free.
St. Johns County Superintendent Dr. Brennan Asplen said the letter came without warning.
“They’re asking to utilize open space at our First Coast Technical College,” Asplen said. “When we receive that, you know, we’re thinking, ‘Well, we’re a growing school district. We’re building schools. We don’t have empty spaces.’”
But according to revised rules for what the state has designated “Schools of Hope,” the demand from Mater Academy to be given space inside First Coast Technical Institute in St. Augustine is perfectly legal.
The rules, which don’t take effect until Oct. 28, allow Hope Operators, like Mater Academy, to identify “underused, vacant or surplus” facilities in a district, and then give the district notice that the charter wants to take over part of that space.
“We’re gonna be looking at that more closely,” Asplen said, “to see where the open capacity might be that they’re even talking about.”
According to the rules, the district has 20 calendar days from the notice to respond in writing.
But Asplen said Mater Academy’s notice was sent prematurely. With the revised rules not taking effect until Oct. 28, the state has said notices can be submitted starting on Nov. 11.
The district told News4JAX that it will be reviewing the notice and gathering more information before it responds in the coming weeks.
“We haven’t had any contact with the charter school itself,” Asplen said.
According to Mater’s notice to Asplen, the charter would plan to open in August 2027, with a five-year projection for enrollment of 1,884 students in a K-12 school.
Mater is also asking the district for floor plans and for before and after-hours access to the facility.
Again, Asplen indicated that the notice from Mater is premature but will be addressed by the district.
He also expressed some concerns about the logistics of having two separate schools in the same building.
“You have two principals and two different boards, and they’re doing their own thing and we’re doing our own thing, but we’re all under the same safety laws and how we operate and the process, procedures, busing, food service -- that all has to get really worked out if this were ever to occur,” Asplen said.
But he also knows that whatever services are needed, the district would be stuck with the bill.
“According to the law, the charters will be able to move in free of charge. And then they would be able to utilize our campus also free of charge. So we would end up paying for the security, the utilities, the cleaning, the food,” Asplen said. “So everything that we normally pay for in our schools, we would be paying for those, and they don’t have to pay that.”
Asplen said he thinks perhaps lawmakers who approved the revised rules just assumed that it wouldn’t cost the district more to allow charter school students to take over “underused” space.
But Asplen said if a school in St. Johns County is significantly under capacity, it could possibly close an area to cut down on costs.
“Some of the things -- cleaning, custodial -- you wouldn’t have to (do), but when you open that up, now you might need a couple of more custodial staff that you’ll have to pay for. You’ll have higher electric bills that you have to pay for, and those kinds of things,” Asplen said. “The only thing I can think of is maybe in making the law, they’re thinking, ‘Well, the school, for instance, already pays for everything within the school, so there shouldn’t really be any extra dollars, any extra amounts,’ but there are.”
Asplen is also concerned about the dollars coming into the district being affected if a charter takes over part of a school building. Right now, they receive about $9,100 per student.