The Shining Rock Classical Academy Board of Directors on March 10 unanimously accepted the resignation of Head of School Joshua Morgan, approving 90 days of severance pursuant to an attorney-drafted agreement. After a five-year tenure as Shining Rock school director, Sara Jenkins will serve as the school’s interim executive director, effective immediately.

 Chair Alyson Weimar made both announcements at a March 11 special called meeting, adding that the board will move forward with the support and guidance of Leaders Building Leaders.

Shining Rock Classical Academy’s governing board is weighing whether to end its high school operations by summer after a new financial sustainability report revealed the Dellwood Road campus is operating at a $300,000 deficit and would require more than $1.1 million in facility investments over the next few years.

A judge’s ruling earlier this month that ordered Shining Rock Classical Academy — a charter school in Haywood County — to turn over public records requested by a mother and this newspaper is a win for taxpayers across this state who fork over their hard-earned cash to fund both regular public schools and charters.

With a new middle school on the horizon, Jackson County Public Schools is budgeting for a changing school system. On May 6, JCPS made its official request for local funding from the Jackson County Commission.  

There are some things John Hood (SMN, May 29) and his ilk don’t want you to think about in their relentless promotion of “school choice” and “educational freedom” — their feel-good euphemisms for the transfer of your taxpayer dollars to private, church-related and “charter” schools. Hood, who pops up everywhere these days, is a paid mouthpiece for the libertarian-conservative and free-market agenda of Art Pope (remember him?) — and it shows. 

North Carolina is becoming a national leader in expanding choice and competition in education. For some North Carolinians, this is a source of pride. For others, it’s shameful. 

With accountability data released from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, all charter schools in the Smoky Mountain News’ four-county coverage area showed an increase in the percentage of students passing state exams during the 2022-23 school year compared to 2021-22 school year. 

There are several outstanding variables that will affect budgets for local charter schools in the coming school year — average daily membership, the state budget and state legislation, to name a few.

According to a press release, Shining Rock Classical Academy board of directors recently unanimous voted to accept the architectural designs and preliminary budget for a permanent school facility as presented by design-build partner, BC Construction Group (BCCG). In partnership with Shining Rock and BCCG, Performance CSD will be providing financial resources to fund and finance the project.