FRANKLIN, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire lawmakers are still negotiating the details of a bill that would boost funding for charter schools, but the help won’t come soon enough to save one of them from closing.

The Franklin Career Academy, which opened in 2004, is the state’s first charter school. On Friday, director Bill Grimm told the school’s 30 students that they need to find another school to attend next fall because the school will close this summer for good.

The school was designed to help at-risk high school students in a community that had one of the state’s highest dropout rates. But it has struggled to balance its books because it has operated almost exclusively on state funds.

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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com

AP-ES-05-24-08 0815EDT