Corolla Charter School not selected but not giving up.

Despite making the final round, the Water's Edge Village School was not selected by the State for charter but the group remains optimistic about getting the school up and running. Below is an article from the Daily Advance's Kristin Pitts:

By Kristin Pitts
Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2010
They didn’t get the State Board of Education’s approval on Thursday, but supporters of the Water’s Edge Village School aren’t giving up just yet.

The Corolla-based proposed charter school made it to the final round of consideration, but ultimately lost its bid to become the state’s 100th and final charter school.

Instead, the state board granted preliminary approval to Union Independent School in Durham.

In an interview Friday, Water’s Edge president Meghan Agresto called Union Independent a “very deserving school,” adding that the board’s votes went primarily to schools like the one in Durham that were already up and running.

“What we’re getting just from their vote is that they’re not funding the dreamers, and that’s OK,” Agresto said. “We don’t think of ourselves as dreamers. We think of ourselves as people who had an idea, see a need, and are going to fill a need. There’s an under-served population here and we’ll do what it takes to get a school started.”

Agresto says that the group’s next step will be to talk with Currituck County Schools Superintendent Meghan Doyle. Following that conversation, the group will meet with parents and community members.

Agresto says Water’s Edge backers are not exactly certain what the future holds, but that she wouldn’t be surprised if the school becomes a reality within the next year.

“If in 2011 in September we have a school up and running, I won’t be surprised,” she said. “We are an active bunch with a vision and a mission and we are moving toward it. It might not happen, but I’m not going to be surprised if we manage to get it to happen.”

Whether the funding for the school comes from grants, public or private funds remains to be seen, Agresto said.

The idea of creating Water’s Edge originated from a desire to meet the needs of students who don’t have convenient access to a free public education. Currently, parents of students in the Corolla area may either send their children on what for some students amounts to a three-hour round-trip commute to a Currituck school, pay out-of-county tuition to a closer Dare County school, or home-school their children.

Weighing in on the state board’s decision Friday, Doyle said she was disappointed to hear that Water’s Edge’s bid to become a charter school had fallen short.

“I will continue to work with Water’s Edge Village School, the Corolla Education Foundation and Meghan Agresto to see if we can come up with solutions that are better than having very young students on the bus before 6 a.m. in the morning,” Doyle said. “The Corolla Education Foundation has done a great deal of work that is not in vain that I am sure will benefit us as we look for other options.”

Agresto said the biggest thing she had learned from the charter school application process was the importance of already having a school up and running.

“We’re moving forward and we’re feeling good,” Agresto said. “So that’s where we are right now.”