One Charlotte charter school lost its appeal to remain open and another faces a closure vote this week. Both are on the agenda for Thursday’s North Carolina Board of Education meeting, which will be held at UNC Charlotte.
Eastside STREAM Academy and Invest Collegiate Transform were among a wave of new charter schools approved to open in 2013. Ten years later, those charters are up for renewal, and state officials say both should close because of academic and financial problems.
The state’s Charter School Advisory Board and the Board of Education voted earlier this year to end the charter for Eastside, a K-8 school in east Charlotte with about 300 students. Eastside appealed that decision last week.
On Monday the state posted a ruling from two independent lawyers who heard the case. Dickson Phillips and Ken Soo ruled that the state acted properly — effectively a recommendation to uphold the decision to cut off public funding after June 30.
The school “adopted the admirable and challenging goal of serving high needs students who have come from other school environments with significant learning deficits,” their report concluded. “However, the evidence considered by the CSAB and the SBE is sufficient to conclude that the school has failed to meet student performance and financial management standards required by state law, SBE’s official policies, and the school’s Charter.”
Invest Collegiate Transform, a K-12 school in uptown Charlotte that also serves about 300 students, came before the advisory board in March. That panel voted not to renew its charter, citing low test scores, a history of financial noncompliance and failure to accurately track attendance and respond to truancy.
The state Board of Education is scheduled to review the Eastside appeal report and vote on the fate of both schools Thursday. Board meetings normally take place in Raleigh, but the board comes to Charlotte Tuesday for a two-day planning workshop, followed by the business meeting Thursday. All sessions take place at UNC Charlotte’s Cone University Center and are open to the public. Find agendas here and stream the meetings here.
