Covering a variety of charter school legal issues from best practices to administration succession planning, financing of facilities, and labor and employment concerns, Taylor Porter attorneys served as presenters at the annual Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools "Bottom Line" Professional Development Conference, held in Baton Rouge on Feb. 7, 2019. Attendees included charter school leaders and administrators from throughout Louisiana. LAPCS is a membership organization that serves as a voice for the charter school movement in Louisiana, representing more than 90 percent of charter schools in Louisiana who serve 80,000 of students statewide.

​Taylor Porter attorneys Preston Castille, Vicki Crochet, Nancy Dougherty and Ne'Shira Millender served as the speakers for the event, discussing the following topics related to charter schools:

• Best Practices for Governing/Managing Charter Schools
• Staff & Board Evaluations
• Practical Succession Planning
• Acquisition and Financing of Facilities by Charter School Boards
• Managing Managers/Effective Hiring - What You Can and Cannot Ask

By partnering with a variety of local and national experts as program hosts, the Bottom Line Training School Growth & Sustainability Conference keeps charter schools well informed of current hot topics and long-standing best practices through a series of year-round in-person events, webinars, and memo updates.

Taylor Porter attorneys represent and advise charter schools, charter school boards, and charter school advocacy organizations in the emerging and developing, but yet challenging and complex field of charter school law.​ Charter schools are independently-operated public schools that operate under a contract with a charter school authorizer, typically a nonprofit, government agency, or university that holds them accountable to standards outlined in their charter. Louisiana’s Charter School Law was enacted in 1995 (Act 192), and since the law went into effect, 146 schools have been classified as charter schools with 84,400 students attending those schools.

Although charter schools are exempt from many of the requirements imposed by state and local boards of education, charter schools must comply with state laws governing public entities, including the Code of Ethics, Open Meetings Law, Local Government Budget Act, Public Records Act, and Public Bid Law, among others. Charter schools must also comply with policies set by their authorizer. Taylor Porter attorneys, therefore, represent and advise charter schools regarding board governance, ethics, and open-meetings, and work with charter school administrators to review and negotiate contracts and operating agreements with businesses, vendors and state and local education agencies.

These representative matters can include:

• Education issues, including faculty, staff and student relationships, civil service, procurement, public financing contracts, property, contract confection and negotiation, campus records, research confidentiality, claims under Title VII, Title IX and the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, church/state relations and free speech issues, technology transfer and numerous other public law issues regarding elementary, secondary, and higher education.
• Labor and Employment issues, and staffing concerns, including hirings, wage issues, overtime policies, dismissals, and working with administrators to develop manuals and handbooks, including affirmative action plans and sexual harassment policies and procedures, and drug-testing policies and procedures.
• Taxation, financing and bonding issues, including charter school tax-exempt status, filings with the IRS, and private donations, bank loans, and tax credit, and bond opportunities.
• Real estate, land use and facility-use arrangement issues, including negotiating of leases with property owners for commercial real estate and property
• Construction issues for any new charter schools or renovations to existing charter schools, and working with general contractors on various contract concerns

In addition to practicing charter school law and representing our charter school clients, Taylor Porter attorneys serve on boards for public charter schools and charter school advocacy organizations.