MISENHEIMER, N.C. -- A Stanly County charter school was cited by the Department of Labor for not informing staff members about asbestos in the insulation.

Gray Stone Day School has been located in the 60-year-old Harris Science Building on the Pfeiffer University campus since it started six years ago. The fine was $350, and brings attention to the need for a new building for the school.

“High schools are very expensive to run and therefore we partnered with Pfeiffer knowing that they could help us with some of the athletic facilities that we needed as well as giving us this building to use,” explained school representative Helen Nance.

“Harris Science Building was a temporary solution for a great idea,” added Dr. Charles Ambrose, Pfeiffer president.

The school can correct the asbestos issue, but now they are focusing on raising money for a new building.

“We have gotten some of the money raised,” said Nance. “We still need $200,000 dollars to be able to start and it's just really, really hard.”

North Carolina sets aside 40 percent of lottery proceeds for school construction. Even though charter schools are public schools, they don’t get that construction money. It’s something charter schools are working to change.

“Charter schools would like to be able to receive the same amount of funds from the lottery for the same purposes as any other regular school system,” said Nance.

Federal funds can also help pay for charter school construction, but that requires a state match, something North Carolina won’t do. According to the U.S. Charter Schools Web site, N.C. has 93 charter schools serving more than 27,000 students. N.C. law will only allow 100 charter schools in the state.