Charter 'Accelerator' Program Helps New Schools Open Doors | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Barry Smith, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Parents for Educational Freedom provides educational, financial planning assistance

    RALEIGH     Of the 26 new public charter schools given preliminary approval to open in fall 2014, two were spearheaded by the Accelerator Program operated by Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.

    The Accelerator-led schools will be the first charter schools in two eastern North Carolina counties - Bertie and Halifax.

    Heritage Collegiate Leadership Academy will open in Bertie County, and KIPP (which stands for Knowledge Is Power Program) Halifax College Preparatory will operate in Halifax County.

    "We're real excited," said Darrell Allison, president of PEFNC, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports public charter schools and other school choice initiatives. The two charter schools are "in their planning year now."

    Charter schools are public schools that receive tax funding based on the number of students enrolled. Each school is governed by its own board of directors. Charter schools generally have more flexibility and fewer regulations than traditional public schools.

    Kwan Graham, who co-directs the Accelerator Program with Camesha Jones, said the Accelerator Program works to help potential charter schools be prepared financially, including assistance with business plans. It provides facilitators to help the schools' boards discuss board governance and curriculum.

    "People come in and talk about best practices," Graham said.

    Graham said quality is the focus of the Accelerator Program.

    "If you have a community that's struggling, you need the best of the best to go in," Graham said. "It is all centered around making sure that we have the best educators, the best educational plan, sound finances - every part that makes a school run that is top quality. The focus of an Accelerator is to have a quality charter school ... that's going to help kids [who] are being challenged."

    Graham said the KIPP Halifax College Preparatory will be modeled after a "very successful" KIPP Gaston College Preparatory in Northampton County.

    "They're going to open up with fifth grade," Graham said of the Halifax campus. "It's going to [have] 90 students the first year," with plans over time to expand to include kindergarten through eighth grade and enroll 810 students.

    A part of the planning for any charter school is finding a facility to house it, which can be challenging for schools that start out small but expand.

    "For many schools, they may choose an existing building," said Kashi Nelson, founding director of Heritage Collegiate. "Modular units are an option for many charter schools" as they grow.

    Nelson said she is returning to Bertie County to help the school get off the ground. "I started my teaching career in Bertie County," Nelson said, noting that the county's schools have struggled in recent years.

    "Our test scores, on average, have been among the lowest in the state, especially in reading," Nelson said.

    She said Heritage will implement strategies to improve reading proficiency, including the use of a reading achievement program from the Hill Center, along with infusing Latin in all the English and language arts classes.

    The Hill Center, based in Durham and Raleigh, developed a tutoring model for students experiencing reading difficulty. According to the organization's website, it uses small group sessions which focus on drills, phonics, sight words, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension to help students improve their reading skills.

    "There will definitely be a focus on literacy at Heritage Collegiate," Nelson said.

    The school initially will offer kindergarten through third grade, and plans to expand by one grade a year until it offers the eighth grade.

    Initially, the school will have about 240 students and eventually plans to enroll as many as 500 students, she said.

    Nelson said the Bertie charter school has been in the works for seven years, and has steadily gained support within the community.

    "We were stopped by the cap," Nelson said, noting that until the 2011 legislative session, the number of charter schools in the state was capped by law at 100.

    "We've been bombarded with résumés," Nelson said, for both the principal and teaching positions. "We don't officially begin recruiting until January."

    Bill Cobey, chairman of the State Board of Education, said he likes the work PEFNC is doing to bring charter schools to rural counties.

    "It's easier to establish a public charter school in the inner city than it is in a rural county where they don't have the human resources," Cobey said.

    Cobey notes that Parents for Educational Freedom was started around the idea to provide opportunity scholarships, tax credits, or vouchers to help students attend private schools. Public charter school advocates then reached out to Allison and the organization's board and asked them to provide some leadership in charter school advocacy, Cobey said.

    "It's been a stellar organization," Cobey said, praising Allison's leadership.

    PEFNC's Accelerator Program will target six areas for new charter schools for approval next year - four in rural areas, two in urban areas. The intention is placing two new charter schools in Pitt County, and one each in Warren County, Edgecombe County, southeast Raleigh, and Durham, Graham said.

    "Southeast Raleigh has a lot of challenges," Allison said. And the targeted charter school for Durham would be a KIPP school, which Allison said has a strong national brand.

    Cobey said it's important for parents to have choices for their children's education. "I had choices for my kids and I used both the public and private schools for my kids," he said. "If I'm in a rural county, I [may not] have that choice."
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




Beaufort County Government's General Meeting Agenda: Monday, November 4, 2013 Government Website Links NCAE To Monday Teacher ‘Walk-In’

HbAD0

 
Back to Top