A blue ribbon school in Alpharetta could close this summer after the Fulton County Board of Education denied an extension of the school’s charter.

A standing-room only audience watched as the board voted unanimously not to renew the charter for Fulton Science Academy Middle School Tuesday night.

"We are not going to stop," parent Lauri Crowe Kowalski told the AJC. "This is a big bump in the road though."

Fulton Science is a school of more than 500, and it was named a national Blue Ribbon School of Excellence for its standardized test achievement. School officials wanted a 10-year contract extension because of the good academic work, but Fulton Superintendent Robert Avossa told them to take a three-year contract instead so the district could monitor its use of taxpayer money.

Avossa wants the school on the same contract schedule because of its expansion plans. Fulton Science and its sister schools, Fulton Sunshine Academy and Fulton Science Academy High School, agreed to build a shared campus with $18 million in loans. The schools wanted revenue bonds from the City of Alpharetta.

Fulton Science governing board members did not accept his offer. School officials said they needed the 10 year contract because it would help attract students and teachers to the school and also help with business operations.

"This is something I cannot support at this time," Avossa told the board before the vote on the 10-year contract application. "Our school system has an obligation to its taxpayers to be fiscally accountable and good stewards of its money."

Fulton schools also found problems with the charter school’s finances during its application process. FSA paid $156,000 to a nonprofit without first putting the contract out for bid.  The school's executive director and principal served on the board of the nonprofit. District officials said it created a conflict of interest. FSA's principal and the executive director resigned from the board of Grace and said they had not been paid for their work.

The school's contract expires on June 30.  It can apply to become a state charter school, which will cause it to lose local funding for the education of students from Fulton County -- about half of its allocations.

If the state does not offer the school a charter contract, its students would have to return to 16 neighborhood middle schools.