A month before its surprise, mid-year shutdown that “blindsided” parents, Legends Academy’s financial reports showed no hint of a pending crisis, school district officials say.
The charter school, which served about 200 students in west Orlando, announced in December it would be closing its doors for “ongoing and unsustainable financial and operational challenges.”
In November, however, a financial report sent to Orange County Public Schools, which oversees the charter school’s state funding, suggested no looming problems.
“Nothing in the November 2025 Financial Statement indicates they were in a deteriorating financial condition or a state of financial emergency,” wrote Michael Ollendorff, a district spokesperson, in an email.
The closure of Legends Academy, one of the oldest charter schools in Orange, surprised parents as much as the district, leaving families scrambling to enroll their children in other schools in the middle of the school year.
But Megan Paquin, a spokesperson for Legends Academy’s board, said in a statement that the school had struggled for years because of reductions in federal funding, increasing rent fees and declining enrollment.
Before closing, Legends Academy enrolled 223 pupils, but it had about 350 in 2021. Charter schools, like all public schools, are funded on a per-student basis and a decline in enrollment means less state money.
The school’s audits showed it “faced substantial ongoing financial challenges for several years, and throughout that time, the school and broader community worked diligently to sustain itself through charitable support and responsible oversight,” the school’s board said in a separate statement sent by Paquin.
Although “charitable support” was able to keep Legends Academy afloat, the board said it projected a decrease in donations going forward given the current state of the economy. Board members decided at a Dec. 29 meeting that they “could not move forward in good faith that the school would be able to continue operation and meet its financial obligations.”
In 2021, property records show the school purchased a new school building for $2 million. The school’s nonprofit parent organization, Nap Ford Community School Inc., has spent more money than it’s received every year since, according to records filed to the Internal Revenue Service.
The school intended to move from rented portables into the renovated building by July 2024, but the move never happened.
Four years later, Legends Charter sold the building, according to a June audit. The sale helped erase the school’s debt caused by the purchase of the property, and its finances looked healthier in the final report sent to OCPS.
Ollendorff said the district’s school choice department now was awaiting a final financial audit from Legends Academy and the repayment of any public funds owed back to the district. It’s unclear yet if any money is owed, however.
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run, and they operate under a contract, or charter, approved by the local school board. Legends, then called the Nap Ford Community School, opened in 2001, though in a different location.
The fact that the school was struggling financially for years never reached parents, said Jakara Williams, who sent her daughter and son to Legends Academy.
She said the closure “blindsided” parents, who had heard no hint of financial struggle.
“They didn’t say anything about anything,” she said.
Her kids now attend Central Florida Leadership Academy, another charter school, but the family lives near the former Legends campus and driving past it every day is “bittersweet,” she said.
The school was located just south of the intersection of John Young Parkway and Orange Center Boulevard on property owned by The Hope Church of Orlando. One afternoon last week, movers could be seen carrying boxes out of some of the classroom buildings.
Several of the school’s eight board members declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment about the school’s closure and financial problems.
Paquin said there was no recording of the late December meeting where the board voted to shut down the school.