Tax Tussle: Charter School Grant Protested

Bethlehem City Council voted Tuesday to accept a $3 million state grant on behalf of the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, which is planning to build a new $27 million school in the South Side.

But, according to The Express Times, the decision to accept the economic development grant was not popular with Bethlehem Area School Board President Michael Faccinetto and Bethlehem Education Association President Jolene Vitalos, who urged council to reject the money.

Council voted 5-2 to accept the grant with only Council President Eric Evans and J. William Reynolds—who are both employed as public school teachers—voting against, according to the newspaper.

It is usually a matter of routine for municipalities to accept state economic development grants on behalf of private entities that are located within their boundaries.

The charter arts school broke ground at the new location—the corner of E. Third and Polk streets—earlier this month.

It plans to relocate from its current location in the old Sure Fit garment factory at 675 E. Broad St. to a new three-story building that will have a 350-seat theater, four large dance studios, music rooms, a visual art gallery, a rooftop performance space and enough room to increase its 450-student enrollment by nearly 50 percent.

In addition to the grant, the school has launched a $5 million capital campaign to help pay for the new construction.

In a Bethlehem Patch blog post, Faccinetto makes the case that the planned new charter arts high school should be ineligible for funding through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, commonly known as RCAP.

The grant program is designed to expand tax bases and create jobs, but the new charter arts high school will do neither, putting a tax-exempt entity in the midst of a state Tax Increment Financing zone, Faccinetto said.

The school district has also supported that TIF by forgoing tax revenue while the arts and entertainment district at the western end of the old Bethlehem Steel complex is developed.

Charter schools are already financed in large part by school taxes—getting a prescribed amount of money for every student that leaves their district school and opts to go there instead.

As the arts high school plans to expand its enrollment by 200 students, Faccinetto said that if half of them come from Bethlehem, the cost to the district would be an additional $1 million every year.

The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts is an audition-based, free, public charter high school where students choose to major in theatre, dance, vocal music, instrumental music, visual art or figure skating.