http://66.225.205.104/SO20091221.mp3
Attending private school costs quite a bit of money and most schools, if not all, offer some form of aid or scholarship to the neediest of their students. But it's rare for a private school to have 100 percent of its students on some sort of scholarship. In Charlotte, Brookstone Schools does just that. WFAE's Simone Orendain reports. At Brookstone Schools, it's time to rehearse for one of several Christmas performances. These students are not the stereotypical upper class kids at private school. Most come from low-income families. And they're exactly the kind of student Brookstone looks for. "The school can be an anchor for a lot of families going through hardship," says Suzanne Wilson. She was Brookstone's headmaster until this year. Now, she's in charge of fund-raising. "For whatever those challenges are, the school is a very stable place, as a refuge that's safe. That's always the same structure, the same routine here. And they build their lives around that." The Christian school's official tuition is about $8,000, but no one pays anywhere close to that. Parents pay a sliding scale of $15 to $250 a month. Wilson says most pay on the lower end. Wilson says private foundations, individuals and corporate sponsors make up the difference. Parent Takiyah Robinson calls the school's sliding scale tuition structure "beautiful." Robinson is a hairdresser. Without the sliding scale, she couldn't afford private school. "It was religion-based where they teach the children about having spirituality, which is bringing them closer to Jesus Christ. And I really like their test scores and what their grade averages were, as far as my child is concerned, and smaller class sizes," says Robinson. Brookstone is the brainchild of Noah Manyika. He's a missionary from Zimbabwe who went to school with no shoes, sat on a concrete bench and studied by candle light with 40 classmates. Manyika attended Georgetown in the 1980's as a Fulbright Scholar. The poverty and high-crime neighborhoods in Washington, DC, inspired him to give back to the country. Manyika returned to the US in the mid-90s and made Charlotte his home. Brookstone Schools was born in 2001 with just 18 kids on two campuses. "I just felt this thing in my heart I had to come back and work as a missionary, to help at-risk kids and share my story with them," he explains. "And say, 'Look if I could go to some of the schools I went to, if I could graduate and get some of the best scholarships in the world, let me tell you, you are way ahead of where I was when I started as a child.'" Manyika formed Brookstone, then moved on to work with the homeless. Today, Brookstone is in one location with 85 students in grades K through 5 at Christ Presbyterian Church on Charlotte's West Side. Eighty percent are black, 17 percent Latino. In Elizabeth Orr's classroom, about 10 fifth graders mill around the white board, their faces inches away from math formulas of improper fractions. "Add it into a mixed number!" exclaim several students. "I think you got it!!" says Orr. Orr says she reviews a lesson as many times as it takes - until every student understands it. The school's test results show student improvement. Its annual report shows, by the time they leave, most score two or three levels above their grade. But like everywhere else, there are financial challenges. Two positions were cut last year. The school hired Wilson as a full-time fund-raiser to help ensure its future. Transportation is another challenge. Brookstone doesn't provide any. Wilson acknowledges that's a barrier for many of the families it wants to reach. Still, the school is determined to grow. Over the next few years there are plans to expand to middle school.