This is interesting because it operationalizes the consensus among leadership in the State that charters should play a niche role and the Governor’s policy that the Department of Education should “prioritize new charter school approval to underserved communities.”  Here is an excerpt from the Herald report:

CONCORD — The state Board of Education approved the application for a group that originally planned to open an arts-focused charter school in August 2014 on the Seacoast, but must locate in the Derry area.

The Granite State Arts Academy approval came Monday, and the new high school will have a maximum enrollment of 160 students during its first year, according to Wendie Leweck of Exeter, chairwoman of the charter school’s founding board of directors.

Leweck said the group behind the school worked for about four years to open the school on the Seacoast, but had to change plans when the Board of Education told them in June it didn’t want another charter high school in the region.

….

Don Erdbrink, vice chairman of the founding board, said neither the Great Bay Charter School in Exeter nor the Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy in Dover have reached their full enrollment.

“I think the state’s point — and it’s a fair point — is you already have two schools there that … very recently weren’t operating at full capacity,” Erdbrink said. “So why open another?”

via Charter school pitched for Seacoast to open in Derry | SeacoastOnline.com.