SBE today: Brunswick’s top-scoring Charter Day School awarded 10 year renewal

2/5/2015— The State Board of Education (SBE) voted unanimously in a regular meeting today to grant Leland’s Charter Day School its maximum renewal designation of ten years. Ten year renewals are granted to public charter schools who demonstrate stability and quality academic performance, in addition to accountability and integrity in areas of compliance and finance.

All public charter schools must apply for charter renewal on milestone years designated by the SBE. Today’s renewal is in follow up to Charter Day’s previous ten year renewal granted in 2005 and is a vote of confidence in the school’s continued success. Currently in its 15th year, Charter Day School serves nearly 1,000 public students in grades K-8.

“Today’s renewal will see us through our 25th year and confirms that we are thriving in our 15th,”remarked Charter Day’s Campus Coordinator, Lisa Edwards.

“This is a great achievement, considering that public charter schools receive limited funding, are subject to more stringent test performance requirements or face closure, and are dependent upon parents choosing to enroll their children each year,” she explained.

Today’s SBE meeting held more good news for Charter Day School.

Following its meeting, the SBE released annual NC School Report Cards. The report cards are a state-level accountability measure to reveal school quality by measuring a school’s academic performance and success at meeting student growth targets. The NC School Report Cards provide an “apples to apples” comparison of all public schools in the state.

The reports reveal that each of the highest performing elementary and middle schools in Brunswick and Columbus counties on End-of-Grade tests are public charter schools managed by The Roger Bacon Academy (RBA).

In Brunswick County, Charter Day School provided the top performing elementary school and middle school on End-of-Grade tests. Its sister school, Columbus Charter, provided the top scoring elementary and middle schools in both the Columbus County and Whiteville City school districts.

This family of public charter schools, managed by RBA, uses a classical curriculum and the Direct Instruction teaching method. Public charter schools accept less public money in order to have more authorship of their educational approach. Public charters are tuition free and open enrollment, meaning that any student may choose to attend and resulting in student populations comparable to those of district public schools.

In addition to Charter Day School and Columbus Charter School, the newest members of this family of schools are Douglass Academy in downtown Wilmington, opened in 2013, and South Brunswick Charter School in Southport, opened in 2014. All schools are currently accepting enrollments for the 2015-2016 school year online or in-person. For more information, visit www.rogerbacon.net or call 910.655.3600.