A Baton Rouge-area charter school is suing the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) for removing the school’s Board of Directors in February, calling the action illegal and unconstitutional.
Education Explosion Inc., which has operated the Impact Charter School in Baker since 2014, filed a federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Louisiana on Feb. 23, arguing that BESE’s decision to replace the nonprofit school’s board with state-appointed members was a violation of state laws governing charter schools and federal due-process and contract-clause rights spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.
“BESE, in a vote on Feb. 21, 2025, unilaterally removed Impact’s duly appointed Board of Directors and replaced them with state-appointed officials, thereby stripping the school of its governance autonomy,” the lawsuit states.
A BESE spokesman declined to comment on the allegations in the lawsuit since the litigation is pending.
The state’s actions come in the wake of a Louisiana state auditor’s report stating that Education Explosion’s CEO, Chakesha Scott, improperly diverted education funds for personal purchases. Scott is also the CEO of another nonprofit called Friends of Impact Charter School (FICS).
“It appears Ms. Scott did not notify Education Explosion’s Board of Directors … about these transactions or, alternatively, misled the board about the facts surrounding these transactions, and diverted these funds without their knowledge or approval,” state auditor Michael Waguespack’s report states. “A portion of the funds diverted to a FICS bank account was used to make purchases for Ms. Scott and her family’s personal benefit.”
Scott may have used the school’s funds to pay for construction services at her personal residence, for personal travel, to lease or purchase vehicles used by the CEO and additional personal expenses, according to the auditor’s February report. Such transfers may have violated provisions of the state constitution and federal and state law, Waguespack’s report says.
But Scott told the Louisiana Record in an email that the auditor’s report contained major misstatements and omissions, and she argued that the state agency’s reconstitution of the Board of Directors exceeded its authority.
“Education Explosion Inc. is a private nonprofit entity that has operated independently since its incorporation in 2009, well before it entered into a charter contract to operate Impact Charter School in 2014,” Scott said. “BESE’s contract is solely for the operation of the school, not for the governance of the entire nonprofit organization or its assets.”
The courts will determine whether BESE had the authority to effectively seize control of a private entity that operates independent of the charter school, she said.
All the transactions cited in the state auditor’s report were approved by the board and were consistent with the school’s operational practices, according to Scott.
“We have over nine years of perfectly clean audits, and we are a B-rated school that’s nationally recognized by U.S. News & World Report for our academic and operational excellence, which could not occur if we operated in the manner that the report has illustrated,” she said.
The federal lawsuit seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop BESE from implementing the removal of the Board of Directors or interfering with the charter school’s governance. Another lawsuit filed by school parents in the 19th Judicial District Court makes similar arguments in addition to accusing BESE of violating the state’s open-meetings law.