Mountain Discovery Charter School is creating a lot of discussion for a school that may never open.

The General Assembly during this session refused to raise the cap on charter schools, which means that for two more years there is a 100-school maximum.

Ortho Tucker, the director of the Office of Charter Schools in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said there are currently 98 charter schools in North Carolina and 17 applicants for the two open spots.

But Tucker also said that up to three additional charter slots could open, bringing the total available up to five.

Two of those schools had asked last year to keep their charter but delay opening for a year. Another may have its charter revoked.

The state Charter School Advisory Committee will narrow the applicant list down to less than 10 in December, said Tucker, and then the state School Board will make its decision in February.

One factor that could help Mountain Discovery is its location in an area where there are no other charter schools.

Rober Gerber is the executive director of the N.C. League of Charter Schools and a member of the advisory committee that makes recommendations to the state School Board.

“Last year, the board gave geographic preference to counties without charter schools,” said Gerber. “If all things are equal, then they resort to geography. At least that has been a factor in the past.”

Gerber added, however, that as many as six of this year’s applicants are from counties that do not have charter schools.

Tucker said the legislature is expected to receive in January a report on charter schools in North Carolina that has been prepared by an outside organization. That report was part of the original legislation passed in 1996, that said the state would allow 100 schools and then would study what has happened with them before deciding whether to allow more.

“The legislature is taking a wait-and-see attitude,” said Tucker.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News