EAST ARCADIA — Five new charters have been approved to open in 2021-22 by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, but a potential new school in Bladen County is not among them.

BEAM Academy was proposed for the East Arcadia area, a school operated by Torchlight Academy Schools. Torchlight, based in Raleigh, had five applications among the 14 being considered.

The quintet approved includes City Charter Academy in Guilford County, Oak Grove Charter Academy in Durham, Huntersville Charter High School and Telra Institute in Mecklenburg County, and P.E.A.K. Academy Charter School in Buncombe County. All are near large urban areas: Greensboro, the Triangle, Charlotte and Asheville.

Charter schools are public schools, funded by taxpayers and exempt from some of the rules that more traditional public schools must follow. Examples are school bus service, which is not required, and the federal school lunch program, which is not required.

Two of the state’s 196 charter schools are in Bladen County. Emereau: Bladen Charter School is on Airport Road in Elizabethtown, and the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy is on MLK Drive in Elizabethtown.

BEAM had proposed starting with 44 children in each grade from kindergarten through fourth grade. Capacity was to be 44 students in each grade K-8 in 2025-26, or 396 students. BEAM would add two grade levels each year.

The plan included a building on property at 1741 East Arcadia Road. Its board would include Tyrone Tucker, Marjorie Graham, Marcus Uzzell, Elise Lonon and Lillian Graham.

The school’s budget was based on a student to teacher ratio of 22 to 1.

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, the application read, 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 charter school in the state.

BEAM was anticipating drawing 50 percent of its student population from Bladen County. Its application cited a negative performance of black K-8 students as a reason for the need to grant the charter.

BEAM’s academic plan was the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. It said it would use the National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum to infuse the educational program with the Agricultural Sciences.

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Alan Wooten

Bladen Journal

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @alanwooten19.