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4 New Charter Schools Approved For Charlotte Area

Four new charter schools have been approved for the Charlotte area. They were among eight given the go-ahead at a meeting of the state Board of Education Thursday.  

Three of the proposed new schools are in Charlotte:

  • Steel Creek STEM Academy - K-6 initially, later K-8, with about 800 students.  The school is modeling itself after Mallard Creek STEM Academy and is getting consulting help from Alliance Preparatory Schools Inc.
  • Movement School East - The application replicates one by the existing Sugar Creek Charter in Charlotte. It plans to start with K-2 and eventually grow to 700 students in K-6.
  • Steele Creek Preparatory Academy - The planned K-8 school would grow to 765 students in five years. Its president is Mecklenburg County Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour and it would be run by the nationwide Charter Schools USA.

Ridgeview Charter School in Gastonia also was approved. It plans to eventually have about 620 students in K-8.

Two other new charter schools in the area were approved in January: Apprentice Academy High School of NC, in Union County, and Mountain Island Day School in Mecklenburg.

Along with those two, the Charlotte area could get a total of six new charters in this round of expansion.  They're all expected to open their doors in fall 2019.

See details about the schools at the State Office of Charter Schools website, http://www.ncpublicschools.org/charterschools/

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David Boraks previously covered climate change and the environment for WFAE. See more at www.wfae.org/climate-news. He also has covered housing and homelessness, energy and the environment, transportation and business.