After defaulting on its monthly payments 10 consecutive times through December 2011, the Chester Community (Penn.) Charter School announced on Dec. 29 that it had filed suit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the state’s Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis, the Chester-Upland School District (CUSD) and its board of directors seeking $3.8 million in overdue funding. The charter school is owed an additional $18 million through the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

“There is no question that we have been extraordinarily patient up to this point,” said David Clark, CEO of CCCS in a statement. “Our school and its students have been deprived, inappropriately, of the funding to which they are entitled.”

Pennsylvania Charter School Law states that the charter school’s funds come from the school district, which is required to make 12 payments no later than the fifth day of each month. CCCS opened in 1998 with a small enrollment of 78 students, but its population has grown to over 3,000 and includes nine buildings over two campuses.