RALEIGH, N.C. (WITN) – The State Board of Education voted this morning to close the state’s oldest charter school at the end of the month.

Children’s Village Academy was appealing a decision by the North Carolina Charter Schools Review Board last month not to renew its charter.

Earlier this week, the Education Innovation and Charter Schools Committee unanimously voted to not renew the Kinston school’s charter in the first step of the appeal.

The full board then voted to deny the charter school’s appeal.

The charter school, with two campuses and 140 students, is said to have a history of fiscal problems. It is the only charter school in Lenoir County.

The school has yet to pay back $152,050.13 in federal grant funds that the state says was improperly spent, while officials claim they have found hundreds of thousands of more dollars in questionable grant spending.

A lawyer for the school admitted it has made mistakes, but pledged it would improve its compliance shortcomings, make changes to its board, and pay back the owned money by the end of the month if its charter was renewed.