No matter who takes the helm at SRCA, the new director will no doubt have his or her hands full with a number of issues. The school is struggling with low test scores, debt from building a modular campus and deciding whether it’s the right time to expand into high school grades for its students.
According to data released by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for the 2016-17 school year, Shining Rock finished dead last in nine of 17 major performance benchmarks compared to Haywood’s other public schools. The most last-place finishes by any other Haywood County school was four.
Additionally, Shining Rock’s overall School Performance Grade (SPG) as reported by the NCDPI declined from 70 in its first year to 65 for the 2016-17 school year, placing it exactly in the middle of all 163 charter schools in North Carolina.
By contrast, the lowest SPG of any school in Haywood County – other than Shining Rock – was a 67.
