Proposed charter school’s leaders couldn’t answer this question. It hurt their chances.
Leaders of a proposed Chatham County charter school failed a pop quiz on Tuesday — likely costing them a chance to win state approval to open in 2021.
The board of directors of Carolina Royal Academy was asked Tuesday to explain the core knowledge curriculum that it plans to use. After an awkward pause, John Norwood, chairman of Carolina Royal’s board, said their role is to govern the school and hire the correct head of school to choose the staff to implement the curriculum.
That answer didn’t sit well with the N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board, which recommended that the school not get state approval.
Core knowledge outlines the content that every child should learn in language arts and literature, history and geography, mathematics, science, music and the visual arts, the News & Observer previously reported.
“If you’re going to have to hold that school leader accountable, you’re going to have to at least have some sort of knowledge as to what this stuff actually is,” Steven Walker, vice chairman of the advisory board, said Tuesday. “Is there nobody on the board that can give a 30-second overview of what core knowledge is and why you chose that?”
The State Board of Education will make the final decision on Carolina Royal. But the state board has historically only approved new charter schools that won the advisory board’s backing.
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules that traditional public schools must follow. There are 196 charter schools now open across the state.
Carolina Royal wants to serve 900 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. School leaders say they initially had looked to open in western Wake County but switched to eastern Chatham County, near the fast-growing Chatham Park community.
The school estimates that 70% of its students would come from Chatham, with 30% from Wake.
The Chatham County school system didn’t send any comments on the new school. But the Wake County school system sent a letter opposing Carolina Royal.
In the letter, Wake school leaders cited concerns such as how they feel Carolina Royal “will produce a school that further segregates.”
Wake school leaders have opposed several new charter schools in the past year only to see them be approved anyway. Most recently, the advisory board recommended Monday the approval of a new charter school in Durham that Wake leaders fear could take some of their students.
School can’t answer question about curriculum
On Tuesday, Carolina Royal’s leaders made their pitch in person to the advisory board. But the inability to answer the curriculum question raised concerns among advisory board members.
Walker said the most important thing for any new charter school is its education plan.
“I don’t expect the board members to be experts on core knowledge,” Walker said. “I expect them to be able to give me a 30-second ‘this is what core knowledge is.’”
Greg Bounds, the vice chairman of Carolina Royal’s board, apologized for the lack of specific education knowledge. But he said they would “guarantee” that the school succeeds if it wins approval.
“We’re not steeped in K-8 education,” Bounds told CSAB. “We are business people. We’ve never failed in anything we’ve done. Our approach to leading is going to be find the very best people we can and leverage them into serving.”
Bounds compared it to how he’s the chief executive officer of Goshen Medical Center, which operates several medical facilities in North Carolina.
“You wouldn’t want me talking about your diabetes or helping you with your blood pressure,” Bounds said. “We’ve got doctors that do that. We’re going to be the same way. We’re going to find the best people, the very best consultants.”
Alex Quigley, chairman of the advisory board, said applicants need to understand what they’re submitting. He encouraged Carolina Royal’s leaders to study more about education and to apply again in the future.
“If I was going to conversely apply to the State of North Carolina for a $10 million grant to open a hospital, I can say I’ve been successful in running a non-profit organization. I’ve been highly successful in this,” Quigley said. “But I would expect that I’d have to know the model of the hospital that I’m running and why and how I’m going to run it and know that cold, inside and out.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Proposed charter school’s leaders couldn’t answer this question. It hurt their chances.."
