North Carolina lawmakers' decision to adjourn without an updated 2024-25 budget left some big cliffhangers in the education world.
More than 90,000 public school teachers are wondering whether the General Assembly might still bump up raises when they reconvene briefly in the fall — and school boards are wondering whether to hold off on approving their own budgets.
Families of about 55,000 students who qualified for Opportunity Scholarships won't get them in time for the start of school, despite Republican leaders' promises to provide additional money. Will that money come later, and if so, will it be too late?
Then there's a question that affects far fewer people — except that it speaks to the integrity of North Carolina's charter school system. Will lawmakers follow up on a clause in the House budget bill that would grant special treatment to a politically connected board that wants to open a Mooresville charter school?
The adjournment means there's no way Trinitas Academy can open this August, as the bill would have allowed. It's still unclear why anyone proposed that plan, which would have bypassed the state's process for deciding who can be trusted with children's education and taxpayers' money.
A detailed plan and a well-known educator
But last week the state's Office of Charter Schools posted 13 applications from schools that will begin the review process this year. 11 of these schools hope to open in August 2026. Two, including Trinitas, are seeking accelerated approval to open in August 2025.
The 528-page Trinitas application paints a picture of the rigorous process boards must follow to win a charter. There are detailed descriptions of Trinitas' classical academy philosophy, lessons, demographics, hiring and retention strategies, marketing plans, governance policies and support for students with disabilities. There's a timetable for opening that includes starting to market the school and holding open houses this fall. Faculty recruitment would start in January, with hiring locked in by July and staff reporting for a special 15-day orientation process as the school prepares to open.
The Trinitas board has a lease on the old Mt. Mourne School in Mooresville. That puts it a step ahead of many boards that struggle to find appropriate facilities. But the application notes the building needs updated technology, safety features, HVAC system and playgrounds.
The application says Boen Nutting, a longtime Iredell-Statesville Schools educator and administrator, has been hired as Trinitas' principal. She served as principal of Mt. Mourne from 2011-2018. I got to know her when she was in charge of district communications in 2018. She retired from ISS last year as assistant superintendent.
The Trinitas budget shows the scope of public spending that's at stake. The first-year budget for the K-8 school calls for $4.6 million, growing to almost $9 million by Year 5. The bulk of that would come from the state, but school districts must also pass along a per-pupil share of county money for each student who attends a charter school — and unlike traditional school districts, charter schools can pull from more than one county. The Trinitas application projects getting almost 300 students from Mecklenburg and almost 200 from Iredell the first year. If that happens, it would bring a pass-through of almost $1 million from Mecklenburg County and just over $375,000 from Iredell County.
All of this is normal. It's the kind of information the state's Charter Schools Review Board and staff will plow through in the coming months to decide who's prepared to run a viable school.
But the question remains: Who thought it would be OK to skip the review, write the checks and make all this happen in two months?
