Officials oppose temporary siting of charter school here

New school should stay in Swain County, school board says

By Lynn Hotaling

In a letter to Otho Tucker, director of the Charter School Office of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, members of the Jackson County Board of Education expressed unanimous opposition to Mountain Discovery Charter School beginning operations in Jackson County this fall.

Mountain Discovery is considering the old Log Cabin school building in Barkers Creek as a temporary location, said Mary Ellen Hammond, chairman of the charter school's board, but is looking at temporary locations in Swain County as well.

"Our charter is for Swain County, and we're required to find a permanent location in Swain County," Hammond said. "We feel committed to Swain County and want to be in Swain County." If the school is forced to locate outside of Swain County, it will be for a maximum of one year, Hammond said. State guidelines permit a charter school to temporarily locate outside its home county, she said.

Mountain Discovery's founders have known from the outset that they would be in temporary quarters their first year, Hammond said, and expected to occupy the old Whittier School, located in Swain County near the Jackson/Swain line. However, renovating the former Whittier School was not economically feasible, she said.

Jackson school leaders, concerned about the charter school's potential drain on local schools finances, object to Mountain Discovery operating in Jackson County for any reason or for any length of time.

"If the location in Swain County is not available to begin the 2002-03 school year, then we would ask the (Charter School) Advisory Committee to delay implementation until a suitable location is available in Swain County the following year," states the April 16 letter.

Local school officials maintain in the letter that the most significant impact on local schools, especially in rural areas, is financial. The 68 students Jackson is expected to lose to Mountain Discovery, coupled with students lost to Summit Charter School in Cashiers, will require a 6 percent increase in local funding, the letter states. School leaders fear that even more Jackson students might enroll if the new school "temporarily becomes a more feasible alternative to more families in Jackson County."

A large portion of state school funding is based on a school system's average daily membership. Each county receives a state allotment based on the number of students enrolled. Because charter schools receive ADM money for the students they enroll, the local system would lose about $4,800 per student based on this past year's state allocations.

If projections hold true, and some 68 students from Jackson County enroll in Mountain Discovery, that could mean a loss of some $83,400 from the local school budget, school system finance officer David Steinbicker said in February.

Other reasons school board members list for their opposition to the charter school operating in this county include their belief that such a location would give Mountain Discovery an "unfair marketing advantage which could draw children and families to try out the program for a year." An associated risk is that Jackson County Schools would face disruption for two years if the school started in Jackson and then moved to Swain as there would be no way to predict how many students would follow the school and how many would return to local schools, the letter states.

Board members contend Jackson County already has one charter school that has significantly increased the cost of operating Blue Ridge School, which lost almost a third of its K-8 students to Summit, and shouldn't have to withstand further economic blows caused by charter schools.

Swain County-based Mountain Discovery received a charter in February to begin classes for grades K-6 this fall. Organizers, who envision it as a regional school that will draw students from Jackson, Swain, Macon and Graham counties as well as the Cherokee Indian Reservation, plan to base the school"s curriculum on the New American Expeditionary Schools instructional model, which emphasizes hands-on learning.

The new school currently has an enrollment of some 72 students, about one-half of its state-mandated 144-student capacity, Hammond said. Charter schools are deregulated public schools operated by non-profit corporations approved by the state. Such schools do not have to pay teachers a state-set salary, provide breakfast or lunch, or follow certain other state and local guidelines.

North Carolina's Legislature in 1996 passed the Charter Schools Act, which authorized a system of public schools to provide opportunities for communities to establish and maintain schools that operate independently of existing school systems.

Back to Archive: 04/18/02.