School hopes to make switch from private to charter

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C.,None — A local school hopes to switch from being a private to a charter school.

By the end of the week, Corvian School in north Mecklenburg County will find out if it's been granted charter school status.

Stacey Haskell founded Corvian with the hopes of it becoming a state charter school. So when the fast track program opened up, allowing private schools to apply to become charter at a quicker pace, she jumped on board.

“This could be huge for our school,” Haskell said. “We can grow. Not only will we be able to serve a larger area for more students, but we'll be free.”

Right now, it costs parents $4,000 a year to send their child to Corvian, which is a K-2 school. If it becomes a charter school, that tuition will go away, and so will how the school currently enrolls students.

Haskell understands parent's concerns.

“They're nervous because all of our currently enrolled students will go to lottery,” Haskell said. “It's kind of the 'yuck' part about becoming a charter.”

But overall, she said, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Lisa Humphries knows just that. She's a kindergarten teacher at Community School of Davidson, a charter school just down the road.

“We're modeling a very successful charter school,” she said. “We have great test scores and very happy families, and our waitlist speaks volumes.”

Humphries said when the fast track charter application process started, only six schools in Mecklenburg County applied.

Only Corvian has made it this far.

Humphries was surprised, but said it gives parents one more option.

“Because we have such a large population of students, I was really surprised it was just one,” she said.

But she said it's one more than they had.

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