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North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association
NC Charter Schools Association is a partnership of employees, volunteers, educators, policy-makers, legislators, businesses, and public supporters who believe that choice and positive competition using high quality public charter schools are owed the children of North Carolina and represent good public policy!
To grow and sustain high quality public charter schools that nourish North Carolina's children and enrich their families. We are a membership coalition established to serve, represent, and advocate for the interests of member schools and their children, parents, educators, and staff.
Executive Director of North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association
Boy what a month in action for the NC Public Charter Schools Association! It was capped off by the filing of 70 charter applications. Stretching back to the last week of January, to celebrate National School Choice Week, the Association held Charter Fairs on successive nights across the state to get the public in front of North Carolina's 132 great charter schools. We had 500 attendees and about 60 schools take part in the fun. We finished off that week by appearing with several charter school leaders on a panel in Charlotte in a "Community Conversation" on charter school education.
Monday through Wednesday of the next week found us in "Music City USA" for a Master Class on vendor partnerships, highlighting Momentum Ventures (an exciting new program for us to create value for our school members) and a gathering of state leaders of charter support associations from across the country. It is so helpful to see how the "other states" do it. Although laws and faces change, the charter culture is strikingly similar in all the states with these schools of choice.
Thursday and Friday of that week were finished off with a national radio interview, a lunch with a business member of the Association, and a trip up the state to meet with a state senator and a group wanting to start a charter in their community. It's a joy to try and light the fire under new school entrepreneurs. Usually they don't need it!
The next week meant trips to the legislative building to talk to legislators about our want list. I and another here at the Association are registered lobbyists and I spent six years in the state senate where I filed most of the charter bills. On Thursday we held a workshop on how to complete the state's new online charter applications. The whole week was sprinkled with new charter applicant meetings and calls. We were also able to squeeze out our bi-weekly e-Newsletter, Matters of Principal, a very comprehensive piece that is opened by nearly 2,000 readers.
The following week we held an Instruction workshop and participated in another charter "conversation" discussion panel. The last week of the month was busy helping applicants with putting finishing touches on those 70 applications.
The whole month included filling in parts to our 2013 Charter Conference in July. We expect 800! That's a year around project.
Okay, come on April. We're ready for you!
