Months after its expected start date, a Dothan charter school has yet to open its doors – and now its ability to operate is at risk.

The Barnabas School of Leadership, originally part of the Greater Beulah Baptist Church, was slated to become the first charter school in the Dothan area. It was initially set to open in August 2023 to about 350 students, but months later, officials are asking commissioners for permission to delay the opening another year.

“This community needs this school,” Rev. Darryl Roberts, executive director of the Barnabas School, said at an Alabama Public Charter School Commission Monday evening. “Our representatives want this school in this community, in spite of all of the challenges that are going on to stop this school from opening or coming to fruition.”

At Monday’s meeting, commissioners expressed numerous concerns about leaders’ ability to open the school on time, citing inadequate financial information and issues with staffing, governance and facilities.

Lane Knight, the commission’s legal counsel, said the school is currently in breach of its contract, and has two options: surrender its charter, or leave it up to the commission to decide whether to revoke it.

“If we’re going to have this school, we need to perform a miracle,” Commissioner Luis Ferrer told Roberts Monday. “Right now we don’t have students, we don’t have staff, we don’t have a board.”

Roberts said the principal previously hired by the school abruptly left days before the scheduled start of classes. Then, he said, the church that was going to front many of the costs pulled out, too.

“If it looks like we’re just negligent or behind, this is why,” he said.

Roberts was formerly the pastor of Greater Beulah Baptist Church. He resigned in September, according to WDHN News, after a legal dispute with the church.

Roberts requested that the board accept his request to change the schools’ location to the former Grandview Elementary School in Dothan, where he has secured a $9,000 monthly lease for a facility.

An October report from the school’s CPA firm, Ferguson, Sizemore and Associates was unable to make an analysis of the school’s funds, stating that “management has elected to omit substantially all of the disclosures required by accounting principles,” according to a reading of the report by Commissioner Ryan Kendall. AL.com has not yet received a copy of the report.

The school now has about $39,000 in its budget and a line of credit for $35,000, according to additional documents read by the commission. Roberts said that leaders have also applied for two $250,000 grants.

No one is currently on payroll, but the school has secured a principal who is working as a consultant until doors open, he said. Leaders are also working with a vendor to get quotes on updated technology and internet services in the new facility, but have not paid anyone yet.

“There’s a huge gap here, not to mention the building itself,” Kendall said. “$39,000, I’m going to venture to guess, is not going to be enough to renovate a school and get it up and running.”

The commission voted to hold a hearing with Barnabas leaders at its next meeting on Jan. 22, where it will decide whether or not to revoke its charter.