New charter schools have been approved to open in 2022 in Raleigh and Charlotte
CORRECTION: Story updated to list correct address for Revitalize Charter School.
Three new charter schools, including ones in Raleigh and Charlotte, have received state approval to open this year.
The State Board of Education voted this week to approve Revitalize Charter School in Wake County, Movement School Southwest in Mecklenburg County and Oak Hill Charter School in Caldwell County. All three schools said in their applications they’d target serving economically disadvantaged students.
Normally new charter schools get a planning year before they open. But all three new charter schools applied for an accelerated opening eight months from now in August.
Charter schools are taxpayer funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules traditional public schools must follow. There are 203 charter school open across the state.
A fourth proposed new school, Elaine Riddick Charter School in Perquimmans County, was rejected Thursday by the state board. The school would have been managed by a company led by Don McQueen, a charter school operator in Raleigh.
On Thursday, the state board voted to close a charter school run by McQueen and to refer another charter school run by McQueen for further investigation over alleged improprieties.
School to serve Southeast Raleigh families
Revitalize plans to open at the Garner Road Community Center, 2235 Garner Road in Raleigh.
Revitalize plans to serve students in Southeast Raleigh with a goal of having 68% of its enrollment coming from economically disadvantaged households. The school has “a very impressive board that is very committed to serving this population,” according to David Machado, director of the State Office of Charter Schools.
Revitalize plans to open this year with up to 216 kindergarten through second-grade students. But the school plans to eventually become a K-8 school serving 648 students.
Newest Movement charter school
This will be the latest charter school in Charlotte for the Movement Foundation, which was created by Charlotte-based Movement Mortgage. The mortgage company recently announced it’s investing $100 million into its charter school network and expanding the concept across the country, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Movement locates its charter schools in underserved areas where there are large numbers of low-income families.
“This is a fantastic organization in the Charlotte area that’s backed by what’s called the Movement Foundation,” Machado told the state board this week. “Their mission and quality of people is excellent, so we’re very excited about them expanding in more locations.”
Movement School Southwest will be located in the former headquarters of the iVerify security company, just off 1-77 on South Boulevard in Charlotte.
The school plans to open this year with 250 kindergarten through first-grade students. But it it eventually plans to be a K-5 school serving 645 students.
This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 8:02 AM with the headline "New charter schools have been approved to open in 2022 in Raleigh and Charlotte."
