Corolla Charter Scholl Passes Another Hurdle

The diligence is beginning to pay off as the hope for a Corolla Charter School is ever closer to becoming a reality. See DA article below for more details.

Council: OK Corolla charter school

By Staff reports
The Daily Advance
Thursday, January 12, 2012

COROLLA — Corolla’s proposed charter school moved a big step closer to reality Wednesday when a state agency recommended it for final approval.

The N.C. Public Charter School Advisory Council voted to allow Corolla’s Water’s Edge Village School application to proceed to the State Board of Education.

The state board will vote Feb. 2 on whether to grant Water’s Edge Village School a charter, according to Sylvia Wolff, vice president of the Corolla Education Foundation, the group spearheading the Corolla charter school effort.

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If granted, the charter would allow the Corolla Education Foundation to open the region’s first-ever charter school in Corolla this August.

Wolff said in an e-mail Thursday that members of the Water’s Edge Village School board of directors attended Wednesday’s meeting of the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools in Raleigh for a final interview.

“After an intense question-and-answer session and a few words of support from (state Rep.) Bill Owens, the panel voted to allow the application to proceed to the State Board of Education,” Wolff said.

Owens, D-Pasquotank, said Thursday the Public Charter 
Advisory Council appeared to recognize the “unique circumstances and situation” in Corolla.

The distance and drive from Corolla to Currituck’s mainland posed some difficult choices for families, said Owens. Students could either ride several hours on the bus or families were forced to pay extra for their children to attend school in Dare County, he noted.

The unique situation swayed at least one advisory council member, Owens said.

The member said he had never before favored granting a charter to a school that lacked the required number of students, but would in the Water’s Edge Village School’s case, Owens said.

The application was Corolla’s second attempt at establishing a charter school. Owens said finding a location for the school and financial support were key in the Corolla’s Water’s Edge Village School’s success this go-round.

“The seven board members of the charter school did their homework and addressed the key issues,” Owens said.

Corolla’s Water’s Edge organizers first applied to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to create a tuition-free public charter school in Corolla in February 2010.

The application made it to the final round of consideration by DPI officials, but ultimately was not approved.

Undeterred, school organizers began soliciting support from area school officials and lawmakers, including Owens.

Things first began looking up for the Corolla charter school last year when the General Assembly agreed to lift the cap of 100 charter schools in the state, and asked DPI to speed up the charter school application process for any group that had already submitted one.

In its revised application, Water’s Edge School projected having 31 students in grades K-6 when it opens in 2012 and growing to about 39 students by 2015-16.

The school’s organizers say the school would emphasize hands-on, outdoor learning and rely on Corolla’s natural resources and the nearby educational opportunities.

The school year would run from September through November with time off in December and January. The second trimester would run February through April, with a two-week break in April, then start in mid-May and go to the middle of August with a week off in July.

The school’s seven-member board said in November that it expected to receive $141,000 in state funding for the school as well as another $66,951 from Currituck County.

The school’s application included letters of support from Currituck County Schools, Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, the North Carolina Aquariums and Audubon Sanctuary at Pine Island.