Eyeing the success of James Island Charter High School, local legislators want to solidify its future as a charter school with a law that would prevent Charleston County School District from charging the school rent.

The district now leases the building to the school for $1 a year, but charter school board members' concerns were resurrected last month after Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson pointed out to them that their four-year lease ends in 2007.

State lawmakers are poised to pass a law to ensure the school's rent remains essentially unchanged.

James Island Charter High leaders consider low rent an issue of fairness. Taxpayers have already paid for the building; charging rent is double taxation, said Robert New, a parent and former Charleston County School Board chairman.

But Goodloe-Johnson said the district is losing money on the facility.

"Every building in our district costs money to run," she said. "We have to absorb that cost."

Records show, however, that the school, a public school that converted to a independently run, public charter school two years ago, pays all its own bills, including utilities, transportation, Internet service, maintenance and grounds upkeep. If the district provides a service, the school pays for it. For example, the district's food service department runs the school cafeteria, but only because the district won that contract by submitting the lowest bid.

The school uses district disbursements to pay for everything. Before it became chartered, James Island High received the least money per student of any high school in Charleston County. But charter law dictated that James Island Charter receive the district's average spending per high school student.

That meant James Island Charter received more than $2,000 more per student after it became chartered, according to school and district numbers. That enabled the school to lower class size to an average of 17-to-1, add classes, give every employee a $1,000 reward for the school meeting state and federal academic goals, and still end the 2003-04 school year with $2.5 million in the bank.

"That's their money and they can spend it however they wish," Goodloe-Johnson said.

But some say they think the charter law shouldn't allow James Island High to get the excess money.

"They've got more money than they can spend," said Jon Butzon, executive director of the Charleston Education Network. "They're overfunded due to a flaw in the law. As a result, it cheats other kids in the school district. That's money not going to buy teachers and real necessary stuff for other schools."

New said the district could eventually "sink the charter by charging exorbitant rent." No one's mentioned any numbers, but school officials fear rent could reach into the six- or seven-figure range.

James Island High, the only public high school for Charleston County's District 3 constituent district, comprising James and Folly islands, converted to a charter school beginning with the 2003-04 school year. Still a public school, it continues to accept every high school student in District 3, plus as many more as it can hold. More than 15 percent of the school's 1,500 students commute from other Charleston County districts.

The difference is that the central district office no longer controls the school. The school is governed instead by a charter board made up of parents and teachers. The school's own teachers, not district administrators, make curriculum, textbook and hiring decisions, giving them a sense of satisfaction and empowerment unthinkable before the conversion, teachers on the school's leadership team said Friday.

"But in the battle to create charter schools, the Legislature forgot to deal with one huge issue -- the building," New, who helped lead the school's conversion to chartered status, told members of the Charleston County Legislative Delegation last week. "It's the great bugaboo in the battle. If it is not resolved, this charter will come to an end."

The House passed a bill March 2 that would allow any public school that becomes chartered to continue using its existing facility rent-free. The House passed a similar bill last year that died in the Senate, largely because some Upstate senators considered it too broad, said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.

This time, the bill's limited to Charleston County, and McConnell says he thinks it will pass easily. If Gov. Mark Sanford vetoes it because of his dislike of local legislation, the Senate will override it, said McConnell, chairman of the local delegation.

"I firmly believe this is a success story that needs to be copied across South Carolina," he said.

McConnell also plans to amend the bill to ensure the district treats the charter school like any of its other public schools.

James Island Charter High officials and teachers say the district excludes the school in petty ways, such as refusing to let its teacher of the year compete in the county contest. The school was not allowed last year to send its expelled students to the county Discipline School, even though James Island Charter offered to pay.

And the school's Academic Team was denied access to the county's Laura Brown fund designed to help pay for student travel expenses. Yet, the previous national champions were representing Charleston County School District in yet another national contest.

It's an example of the district benefiting from the school's successes while treating it like an outcast, school officials say.

"There's still some bitterness out there. It was a hard fight" to become chartered, said James Island Charter High Principal Nancy Gregory. "We're not asking for anything except for what's fair."

She said communication has improved in the past year and believes the relationship between the school and district will continue to improve as the charter ages.

Goodloe-Johnson insists she holds no hostility toward charter schools. Gregory said she believes the pettiness often stems from lower-level administrators.

That officials know of, James Island Charter High remains the state's only existing public school that has become chartered. But several Charleston County public schools, envious of James Island High's successful independence and money, are considering making the switch. Gregory said she's talked to administrators of half a dozen schools in the past year about becoming chartered.

New says he thinks passage of the bill will clear the remaining hurdle and lead to more schools applying for chartered status.