An arbitrator has ordered the Los Angeles Unified School District to pay $7.1 million to a San Fernando Valley charter school for failing to provide the school with rent-free classroom space, as required by state law.

The Ivy Academia Entrepreneurial Charter charged that for three years it did not get enough space for its 1,100 students. Arbitrator John Zebrowski said the district’s failure to comply with the law harmed charter students during those years because the school was forced to use money intended for educational programs to lease a building that was also inferior to what L.A. Unified could have provided.

David Huff, the L.A. Unified attorney, said the school district didn’t have the space during the years that it did not comply. He also pointed to a criminal case that in 2013 found two of Ivy Academia’s leaders guilty of misuse of public funds.

According to prosecutors in that case, one of Ivy Academia’s founders negotiated the 10-year lease of a building for $18,390 a month but then charged the school $43,870 a month to sublease the property.

Los Angeles Times, April 11