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Despite the state’s attempt to close the school, Benji’s Special Educational Academy will remain open as part of a Houston ISD charter school.

Students will continue to attend class at the Benji’s campus on Jensen in Houston’s Fifth Ward, but the school will be managed by the Management Accountability Corporation, which runs a Houston Independent School District charter school called the High School for Business and Economic Success.

The Rev. Lisa Berry-Dockery, who is executive director of the Management Accountanbility Corp., announced the new arrangement at a press conference also attended by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Houston City Councilman Jarvis Johnson, among others.

Berry-Dockery said that Theaola Robinson, the founder at executive director of Benji’s, has retired. The other staff from the school will be able to re-apply for their jobs.

Many questions remain about the deal. The school doesn’t have a principal yet, Berry-Dockery said, but students are being told to show up Thursday morning. It’s also unclear what will happen to Benji’s debt to the Internal Revenue Service and the Texas Teacher Retirement System.

A spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency was not immediately available for comment.

Last month, a board of managers appointed by TEA Commissioner Robert Scott voted to close Benji’s, saying the charter school was nearly bankrupt. But Robinson refused to shut her doors and continued holding class.

“Benji’s was not going to close,” Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said today. “It would have been a catastrophe and a crisis to close this school.”

Benji’s served more than 500 students. Most come from poor, black families, and about 20 percent require special educational services.

ericka.mellon@chron.com

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