5 NC charter schools approved to open in 2023. Do some areas have too many charters?
Five new charter schools received approval Thursday to open in 2023, amid concerns that some parts of North Carolina have too many of those non-traditional school options to meet demand.
The State Board of Education unanimously approved three new charter schools in Mecklenburg County and one each in Wake and Orange counties. A charter school that was proposed for Pitt County failed to win approval Thursday.
Some state board members and N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board members said more consideration should be given about whether some areas are saturated with too many charter schools.
“The members of the CSAB do think saturation should be considered because if the area is saturated, schools aren’t going to be successful anyway,” Cheryl Turner, chairwoman of the advisory board, told the state board this week.
“It’s something that we do think should be considered but it is not something that we’ve been considering in the past.”
Charter schools are taxpayer funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules traditional public schools must follow. There are 203 charter schools open this school year, although the state board has revoked the charters for two schools.
Newly approved charter schools
The newly approved charter schools are:
▪ Nalanda Academy, which will open in the Morrisville/west Cary area focusing on concepts such as mindfulness.
▪ West Triangle High School, which will open in Orange County but plans to draw from across the Triangle. It’s a replication of Research Triangle High School.
▪ Movement School Northwest, which will open in Charlotte as part of a national network of charter schools in underserved areas. The network is funded by Charlotte-based Movement Mortgage, the Charlotte Observer reported.
▪ Great Opportunities and Boundless Innovations for Girls (G.O. B.I.G.), a girls-only school which will open in Charlotte. It was originally proposed as a boarding school.
▪ Honor Preparatory, a charter school that will open in Charlotte using a dual language model, meaning students will take some courses in Spanish and others in English.
Schools to get further review
Greenville Preparatory Academy in Pitt County had also been recommended for approval by the advisory board. But the state board split 5-5 on Thursday, with board member Jill Camnitz raising concerns such as the school’s location and ability to meet its proposed diversity goals.
The state board voted to send Greenville Prep back to the advisory board for further view.
The state board also voted Thursday to have the advisory board take another look at Wayne STEM Academy in Wayne County.
The advisory board had previously recommended approval of Wayne STEM, but the state board had questions about a new contract the applicant signed with the organization that will help fund the school.
Charter school saturation
Charter schools are located in 66 of the 100 North Carolina counties, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. There are heavy concentrations in some counties, including 33 now open in Mecklenburg County, 26 in Wake County and 16 in Durham.
Those school districts have complained about how they’re losing large numbers of students and their funding to charter schools. School districts can submit impact statements listing reasons why they feel a new charter school should not be approved.
“Based on Nalanda’s application, we fail to see how this school would benefit the students of Wake County, moreover it very well could cause the district harm,” the Wake County school system wrote in a letter opposing the new school.
Turner, chair of the advisory board and superintendent of Sugar Creek Charter School in Charlotte, said CSAB had been told they can’t hold the high number of charter schools in an area against a quality application. She said they do try to consider whether an applicant wants to open in an area where existing charters haven’t been able to attract enough students.
State board vice chairman Alan Duncan said they need to give clearer direction to the advisory board on how to consider whether an area is saturated. In addition to school districts, Duncan said the state should ask existing charter schools for feedback on charter school applicants.
“I do think it’s important that we not just get those (impact statements) but have the ability to examine the impact statements and any saturation concerns that might legitimately exist,” Duncan said during Wednesday’s review of the applications.
New UNC-Chapel Hill lab school
The state board also approved Thursday a partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and the Person County school system to serve students in low-performing schools.
UNC Chapel Hill will create a laboratory school, called Carolina Community Academy, that will share the campus of North Elementary in Roxboro. It will open for the 2022-23 school year serving kindergarten through second-grade students.
In 2016, the General Assembly passed a law directing the UNC System to create laboratory schools aimed at improving performance in low-performing schools. The UNC-Chapel Hill school will be the ninth lab school required by the law to open by 2022.
While school districts partner with universities for lab schools, they have no connection to charter schools in their area.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 2:25 PM with the headline "5 NC charter schools approved to open in 2023. Do some areas have too many charters?."
