Eagle’s financially challenged North Star Charter School says it has a plan to get out of the red.
The charter school says it has secured $133,000 in loans and reimbursements, which will cover its expenses through the end of the year, the Idaho Statesman reported Saturday.
A $13,000 loan came from the school’s Parent Teacher Organization and a $70,000 loan came from a private individual, unnamed in the Statesman article. The $50,000 reimbursement came from a fund dedicated to maintenance and improvements.
Meanwhile, the school says it is seeking to renegotiate its building loan — a central cause of its financial woes. The school has $11.75 million in bonds at a 9.75 percent interest rate. If Meridian school trustees approve North Star’s refinancing plan, the school with be in “fat city,” North Star board chairman Jim Miller told the Statesman.
Opened in the fall of 2003, North Star serves about 920 K-12 students — students that could be absorbed into the Meridian School District if the charter school fails. The school was founded by Reed DeMordaunt, an Eagle Republican who now chairs the House Education Committee, although he has not served on the schools’s board since 2004.
