CHAPEL HILL - Plans are in the works to bring a charter school to Chapel Hill, but some are concerned about what this will mean for local public schools.

Angela Lee is on the Board of Directors for the proposed Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School. She says this area needs an alternative to the local school system that can better address the achievement gap.

View the proposal here.

"We want to provide, for parents, an option for obtaining quality education for their kids," she says. "We're certainly not looking to replace anything that's currently in existence--(just) to provide a good option."

Since the General Assembly voted in February to lift the cap on charter schools, applications for new charters have begun flooding in to the State Department of Instruction. The Lee Scholars School is one of 27 proposals on the fast track, meaning applicants are prepared to open by August 2012 if approved by the state.

Under the current proposal, the Lee Scholars School would open with just under 500 students, and grow to serve 700 in five years time. Enrollment would be open to all Orange County residents and students would be chosen using a lottery system.

The day-to-day operations of the school would be managed by National Heritage Academies, a for-profit charter school management company out of Michigan that runs more than 70 charter schools nationwide.

Lee says NHA seemed like a good fit for the new school.

"We thought it was prudent to reach an agreement with a management company," she says, "because we want to be about the business of operating a school and being more involved with the education process of our students."

But this troubles Kevin Hicks, president of Parents Advocating for Children Together, or PACT. He says the plan is not truly a grassroots effort to help children in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, but rather an example of outside interests looking to profit from the changes in state law.

"That's another entity coming in (and) making decisions...where they don't even live," he says. "(They should) at least get the community input--and this fast track, and the meetings that they've held prior to submitting the application, gave no community input."

Because charter schools receive public funding but operate independent of local school systems, Hicks also worries that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district will lose access to some state funding that will go to the charter school instead.

"If this were approved, our already-cash-strapped district will suffer a loss of $2 million in the first year," he says.

At last week's meeting of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board, Superintendent Tom Forcella said he's concerned about inaccuracies in the charter school's application. He plans to submit a letter to the state to address some of those issues, namely enrollment numbers and student test scores.

"A lot of the things that are in the application are actually things that we are currently addressing," he says. "I don't think this is an accurate portrayal (of the district): it tends to portray this school district as not doing some of these things that they're going to do--and we actually already have these programs in place."

The deadline for comment from local officials is December 12. Angela Lee says she expects a decision from the state in early January. If approved, board members will begin scouting locations and accepting applications as soon as possible.