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CCSD reminder: district authorizes nine charters; combined charter fund balances total $42.8 million
Summary
District staff briefed trustees on the local charter landscape, the statutory per-pupil formula and fiscal exposures, noting that charter and partnership payments will rise in FY 2026 and that charter-operated fund balances across schools total roughly $42.8 million.
Charleston County School District staff and charter liaison briefed trustees April 7 on the district’s role as a charter authorizer, fiscal mechanics for charter payments and the aggregated fund-balance position across locally authorized charter schools.
Who and what: The district currently authorizes nine charter schools and reported that roughly 65% of the students enrolled in locally authorized charters statewide attend charters authorized by CCSD. District staff said CCSD is the largest local authorizer in South Carolina by locally authorized charter enrollment.
The funding mechanics: Prentice reviewed the state-prescribed per-pupil funding formula used to calculate charter payments. The formula starts with audited district revenues (net of transfers-in and the budgeted use of fund balance) divided by the district’s weighted pupil units to generate a per-pupil allocation; the allocation is then multiplied by each charter’s weighted pupil units at specified enrollment checkpoints (45-, 90- and 135-day marks) and adjusted during the year.
Fiscal snapshot and policy issues: Staff reported that the FY 2025 general operating fund included about $87,200,000 allocated to charter schools; FY 2026 projections add about $8,200,000 to that total. Charter-operated fund balances ranged across schools from as little as about $7,500 to as much as about $19,000,000; together those balances total about $42,800,000, which staff said represents about 49.2% of the FY 2025 appropriations to charters.
Prentice flagged the aggregate fund-balance level as a point for policy discussion: because these funds originate in the district’s general operating fund and are being held in multiple charter-level silos, the district may want to consider contract or policy guardrails on retained charter fund balances and fiscal transparency. He noted Meeting Street campuses are public-private partnership schools, not charter schools, and operate under a different contractual framework.
Authorizer responsibilities and oversight: District staff reviewed the local authorizer role: application review and contract negotiation, academic and financial monitoring, collection of annual reports, and compliance checks. Bob Olsen, described in the meeting as the district’s charter ombudsman, said the district notifies schools if supervisors identify compliance or performance problems and that revocation is used only for substantial, uncorrected deficiencies after prescribed notice and remediation steps.
Why this matters: Charter payments are funded from the district’s general operating fund; because local property receipts compose a large share of CCSD’s revenue base, large or growing charter payments affect the district’s budget choices. Trustees asked for additional detail on per-school funding, and staff said the FY 2025 budget document breaks allocations out to the location level.
Ending: Staff offered to return with more detail and policy options for board consideration about oversight and fiscal guardrails as part of future discussions about renewals and any new charter applications.
