Renaissance West STEAM Academy opened in west Charlotte in 2017 with high hopes and massive community support. It’s the centerpiece of a project that replaced the dilapidated Boulevard Homes public housing project, surrounded by subsidized housing, child care, a senior center and other support systems.
But until Dwight Thompson took over as the pre-K-8 school’s third principal in 2021, it didn’t have much to celebrate. He brought in experienced teachers used to working in high-poverty schools, stabilized the faculty and started raising academic expectations. Last year Renaissance West got off the state’s F list for the first time in its history.
Tuesday morning, the faculty and almost 650 students packed the school gym for the announcement that Thompson is Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ 2023 Principal of the Year.
“He has come in and has just done a phenomenal job here,” Superintendent Crystal Hill said. “He has such high expectations for himself, the staff, the students, the families that he works with, and he’s working really closely with the Ren West Initiative in terms of their leadership and board.”
The Renaissance West Community Initiative is the “community quarterback” created to coordinate the government bodies, businesses and philanthropies that have invested about $95 million in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty. CEO Mack McDonald was in the audience Tuesday. In a WFAE series on Renaissance West, McDonald said Thompson’s leadership and success could help reinvigorate the whole project: “When the school is successful then our investors start to see the value of continued investment.”
Thompson spent 17 years as an elementary school teacher with Guilford County Schools before coming to CMS. He was principal at Tuckaseegee Elementary before taking on Renaissance West.
On Tuesday, he gave his students credit for the award: “I couldn’t ask for better students. You all have done exceptional work, and you really, really, really are changing everything on West Boulevard.”
Hill praised this year’s extremely strong growth on student exams. In 2023, reading proficiency rose from 17% to 28%, and math proficiency from 19% to 39%. Only 28 of North Carolina’s approximately 2,600 public schools logged a higher growth rating.
Hill said after the ceremony that she hopes to keep Thompson at Renaissance West long enough to see the first promising steps turn into higher proficiency levels.
“I think the best is yet to come,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”
