Corolla Area Working on a Charter School

Optimism is growing that Corolla may one day have a Charter School in town. It has even gotten the interest of the County Commissioners. Below is a report from a recent town hall style meeting that took place in Corolla.

Task force continues to develop plans

By Toby Tate
Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Currituck County commissioners have thrown their support behind a proposal to bring a charter school to the county’s Outer Banks.

Board Chairman Owen Etheridge said Monday that commissioners are “committed” to seeing a charter school in Corolla, and will do whatever they can to support organizers’ efforts.

“From what I’ve seen, charter schools have been successful in North Carolina,” he said. “If they go about this the right way with organization and set up and find some good teachers, I think they will be able to get (the school) off the ground.”

Etheridge and other commissioners discussed the idea of a charter school on the Outer Banks during a “town hall” meeting with Corolla residents several weeks ago.

Meghan Agresto, manager of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and a parent spearheading the charter school effort, said she left the meeting “feeling incredibly positive” about commissioners’ support.

“Three of them came up to me — (Vance) Aydlett, Etheridge, and (Paul) O’Neal — and they said they think this is an incredible idea and (to) let us know what we can do to help,” Agresto said.

Agresto and several other Outer Banks residents, including Sylvia Wolff, Sharon Twiddy, Bren Robbins, Susan Taylor, Julie Allen and Ilze Drozds-Russano, make up the Corolla School Task Force. The group has been meeting since February to develop a plan for opening a charter school in Corolla by the fall of 2011.

Although charter schools are publicly funded, they’re different from traditional schools in that they’re not controlled by local public school districts. Usually charter schools are controlled by a local board of directors that is responsible for ensuring students meet the same educational standards as their peers in traditional schools.

Under state law, charter schools have to be approved by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. So far, there are 98 charter schools in North Carolina, the closest being Washington Montessori School in Beaufort County.

Agresto said the Corolla charter school task force still needs to incorporate, apply for non-profit status and apply to DPI by February in order to meet its deadline of fall 2011.

One of the chief matters DPI will weigh before approving the task force’s request is the proposed charter school’s financial viability.

“In order to balance the budget, we have to prove to DPI that we can balance (our budget) with the money that follows the children the first year,” she said.

The group also has to elect members to a non-profit board, have those board members receive training in school policy and administration, and find a site for the school.

“We have some good leads on locations” for a school building, she said. “We are communicating with people who are interested.”

Since the school would be a nonprofit entity, any donations, such as a building, could be used as a tax credit, Agresto said.

Agresto believes the school could be more than an educational resource; it also could be another economic draw for the Outer Banks, she says.

“I think people here realize it would be good for commerce if school wasn’t an impediment to living here,” she said. “Even if people were commuting, they could bring their kids with them — people like to be close to their kids. We think that if we build it, they will come.”

The task force plans to meet sometime next week to discuss its next move, Agresto said.

“We really need to meet and educate ourselves” about the charter-school process, she said. “But it looks like if we jump head first into this that the community will be behind us.”


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