Lake Lure charter school attracting McDowell students

By Britt Combs
Published: July 18, 2010

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A new charter school in Lake Lure will open its doors for the first time in August. The school is ready and able to serve McDowell students, according to Director Caroline Upchurch.

A veteran of eight years in charter schools, Upchurch recently told The McDowell News that two McDowell kids will be among the 237 kindergarten through seventh-grade students to attend classes at Lake Lure Classical Academy.

The academy is the state's newest charter school, Upchurch said. Charter schools are public, state-funded and state-chartered schools that are not governed by the local school board, but instead are independent, governed by a board of directors.

"We have a lot of autonomy in how we teach," said Upchurch.

According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, more than 3,500 charter schools educate more than 1 million children in the United States. By North Carolina law, no more than 100 schools can operate. Upchurch said that, unlike traditional public schools, public charter schools can and do accept students from outside local school districts.

"We have two students from McDowell already signed up, and we would love to have more," she stated. "We can serve any child and we offer every service any exceptional children would expect to receive at any other public school."

Students at Lake Lure can expect things to be a bit different though; the school requires uniforms. There is no cafeteria staff preparing meals (although students can order meals from a local restaurant in Lake Lure, ordered a week in advance or bag a lunch) and parents must drive their kids or carpool, there are no buses.

The mast dramatic difference from a traditional public school, however, is in the curriculum. While the school focuses on "core knowledge" (which closely mirrors the "North Carolina Standard Courses of Study" in the primary and middle grades, the high school is geared to classical education, Upchurch explained, with emphasis on grammar, logic and rhetoric.

She pointed out that students at Lake Lure Classical Academy are evaluated the same way as in traditional public schools, with standardized tests, but that the curriculum and teaching methods are determined by the school's trustees and faculty rather than by a state board.

The school is part of the Challenge Foundation Academy family of schools, which includes Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy in Rutherford County.

Although the school will open with grades kindergarten through seven, the seventh-grade cohort will add a grade each year, until they become the school's first graduating class: the Class of 2016.

Upchurch and others from the school will hold a public information meeting on Tuesday, July 27 at the Bill's Creek Community Clubhouse from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, call the school at 652-9292 or go to www.llca.teamcfa.org.