By tomorrow night, North Penn School District parents and students will know whether or not a charter school is coming to the district.

The school board will vote on the application of Montgomery Flex Charter School, which looks to open at Hillcrest Shopping Center in Lansdale Borough.

At present, there are 75 students on the pre-enrollee list.

“This is far beyond my expectations for how many would be interested at this time, so we are off to a great start,” said Tim Sager, founder of Charter Initiatives Inc. and director of school development at k12 Inc.

If the school board denies the application, Sager said in an e-mail that the effort to bring a charter school to the district would continue.

“If it is a ‘yes,’ we will continue to work on preparing everything for a charter opening including getting the facility, the curriculum and the teaching staff in place. If it is a ‘no,’ that does not mean the end of the process,” Sager said. “We can decide at that point whether to appeal the decision in Harrisburg or to revise our application and resubmit to the district.  Both of these are viable alternatives and we can decide that after tomorrow evening.”

Montgomery Flex will hold a second open house for interested individuals at Lansdale Library on Feb. 22 in the Lynn Janoff Community Room at 7 p.m.

In January, Superintendent Curt Dietrich announced preliminary plans for the 2012-2013 budget. No line item was included in that budget to fund a charter school.

“The North Penn School Board has until end of February to make a decision on our Charter proposal, so I am not surprised and don't take it to mean anything that it is not in the budget,” said Sager in January.

Montgomery Flex announced its interest to open a charter school in November 2011.

Under Pennsylvania law, a charter school would be an independent public school operating under a charter from the North Penn School Board of Directors.

A charter can be granted for no more than five years by a school board, at which time it must be rechartered for another five years and so on.

North Penn would pay a per pupil cost for each student that would attend the charter school. The district would also provide transportation for those students.

So, if a student jumps from Lansdale Catholic to Montgomery Flex, North Penn would pay. If a student attends Montgomery Flex from Wissahickon High School, then Wissahickon School District would pay.

Funding for the charter school would also come from the state. According to the law, funding is provided by removing allocations that are not part of the operating costs of a charter school from the total expenses per average daily membership of the school district of residence.

Sager claimed a parent could save $15,000 by sending their child to the charter school.

“Charter schools are free. We cannot charge tuition,” he said. “The schools do offer a different option and accountability.”

He also said Montgomery Flex would cover the cost of construction and installation of the school.

K12 provides curriculum to schools and manages schools. The Montgomery Flex coalition is comprised of about 10 individuals, including a professor from Arcadia, teachers, a grant writer and real estate professionals.