ELIZABETHTOWN — A Raleigh public charter school has applied to open a location in Bladen County also serving neighboring Brunswick and New Hanover counties.
Torchlight Academy Schools, led by board chairman Tyrone Tucker, is seeking to open BEAM Academy in East Arcadia. The application to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction is one of five by Torchlight, and 14 overall in the state seeking to open in 2021-22.
BEAM would start with 44 children in each grade from kindergarten to fourth grade. The application indicates that capacity would be 44 students in each grade K-8 in 2025-26, or 396 students. BEAM would add two grade levels each year.
Its plan for a building is the property at 1741 East Arcadia Road. The application indicates two options exist should its planned facility not work out.
BEAM plans to be a nonprofit, but at the time of filing its application did not have that status, its application says. BEAM board members would include Tucker as chairman, Marjorie Graham as secretary, Marcus Uzzell, Elise Lonon and Lillian Graham.
The budget for the new charter school is based on a student to teacher ratio of 22 to 1. It believes a breakeven point in budgeting for the first year is 180 students.
Torchlight Academy was established in 2001 and serves 85 to 90 percent of its population free and reduced lunch. The population of blacks and Hispanics, this application says, is greater than 90 percent at its Raleigh school. That school has exceeded growth for the past three years in state measurements, and bills itself the No. 1-ranked school of 167 charters in the state.
In its application, Torchlight says, “Bladen County K-8 Black students and the schools with the highest composition of Black students are the lowest performing. Schools are simply not accommodating this demographic of students as they should. One such school achieved 22% academic proficiency among its Black students for the 2017-2018 school year compared to Torchlight’s 52% proficiency. East Arcadia, the town where BEAM Academy is seeking to establish itself, has one school that serves only K-4 students. It has been an F school for two of the past three years and averages over a 50% short-term suspension rate. Torchlight can come into our community and offer students struggling with their current learning environments and keep students in school with experienced and life-long resident board member oversight.”
The application says BEAM will seek to have 50 percent of its students from Bladen County.
It also says, “BEAM Academy will use the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as its curriculum standards. The school will use the National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum to infuse the educational program with the Agricultural Sciences.”
The expectation is to have greater than 90 percent of its students who are economically disadvantaged, 14 percent with disabilities and 7 percent English language learners.
The application says, “Torchlight Academy Schools, LLC also offered our board $50,000 in funds to market, furnish, and ultimately open our school responsibly.”
BEAM plans a school year beginning in August and concluding at the end of May. The school day would begin at 7 a.m. and end at 3:35 p.m.