After five tumultuous years, the state's first charter school, Franklin Career Academy, will close this summer for good.

Director Bill Grimm said that after years of wrangling with state and local officials for the funding he needs to keep his alternative high school afloat, his board decided that they would not be able to stay open. Thursday night, he spoke with parents, and yesterday he told the school's 30 students that they would need to attend another school next year. Teachers have begun interviewing for jobs at other schools.

"They knew what the deal was, so it wasn't like some great epiphany," Grimm said. "What we wanted to do was not wait any longer because we thought they have to make a decision."

The school was designed to help at-risk high school students in a community that had one of the state's highest dropout rates, and Grimm said that he's been heartened by the educational successes of the school. Two of this year's five graduates were admitted to their first-choice colleges, he said. Other students who were struggling to earn credits in conventional high schools have thrived at the career academy, he said.

But since its state approval in 2003, the school has struggled to balance its books. It has operated almost exclusively on state funds. After its first school year in 2004-2005, it had to close because of a dispute with the city about funding. The school reopened in 2006. This year, it nearly closed before the end of the school year, but Gov. John Lynch offered a $53,000 lifeline.

Since the Franklin Career Academy opened, 13 charter schools have started up in New Hampshire, though not every one has survived. Directors at many of these schools say they're also struggling to make ends meet.

Grimm, who has been a tireless advocate for his project, has often butted heads with state officials and legislators in his efforts to secure funding for his school. He plans a press conference for Tuesday in which he will outline many of his dissatisfactions with the way New Hampshire's charter schools are governed and funded.

Ironically, the news of the school's closing comes as legislators are negotiating the details of a bill that would provide enhanced funding for charter schools. A group of charter school advocates, which includes directors from other schools, has lobbied the Legislature to provide $6,500 per student, significantly more than the $3,800 per student in state adequacy aid that the schools currently receive. Lawmakers have yet to decide whether to provide more funding to charter schools next year.

But Grimm said that at $6,500, the funding would not be enough to run the career academy properly. He estimated his operating costs at about $8,000 per student.

"If something dramatically changed, would we reconsider?" he said yesterday. "I suppose we'd always reconsider stuff. But even if that's fully funded in the (legislation), that wouldn't be enough to run our program."