An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday granted a request by the Santa Ana Unified School District to have a judge from outside Orange County consider further legal proceedings in its financial dispute with the Orange County School of the Arts.
The school district wants to collect $19 million in back payments for special education services, but school officials dispute the amount and say the district did not give it the proper 15-month notice that it would try to collect on special education services.
Attorneys for the charter school declined comment after Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson granted the request by the district. During a hearing Friday, the attorneys argued the district made the decision to seek an out-of-county judge months after another judge granted a temporary restraining order in May, blocking the district from collecting on the back payments.
School officials also argued in court papers that they urgently needed to resolve the legal dispute as they were due to exhaust their reserves by this month.
Last month, school district officials sent a notice to the state that the charter school was not in “good standing” with the district, which blocked funding for the school.