In the heart of this city is a historic main street that once thrived as the epicenter of activity. However, as a new generation of malls began to spring up in the suburbs, many businesses, and the buildings that housed them, were abandoned.
Enter American Renaissance School, a downtown public charter school serving grades K-8. It has brought new life to the area and has lived up to its name by reviving the community.
The elementary portion of this public charter school is located in a Ford dealership built in 1903. The spacious red brick building screams everything old, but within its walls is everything new, including a bevy of eager students.
Bright colors and art work are splashed everywhere in the open-air facility, and a large red slide appears to come out of nowhere, a treat for students who have earned the reward of a “slide ride.”
ARS holds the honor of becoming the first elementary charter school in the state to incorporate in 1998. All the teachers are fully certified according to North Carolina law and 70 percent hold master’s degrees.
Fourth- and fifth-grade math teacher Linda Dearman, a veteran of the traditional public school system, said working at Renaissance is “heaven on earth.”
“I’ve been around a long time, from the early 1980s of no accountability to No Child Left Behind, where I watched children cry over tests.”
She said this cutting-edge charter school expects accountability for all teachers and students, but a greater emphasis is placed on individualist style and strength of each teacher.
“In the traditional public school system we were tested to death and it made the children cry and stressed them out,” Dearman said. “In this charter school, it is child-centered and we are given the freedom to be a professional. … We are able to decide what each student needs and then tailor our teaching to that. Personally, I love having the freedom to be able to teach again.”
She said the children benefit from the shift. They learn how to think outside the box and see their educational growth as something exciting and progressive.
“It has a different effect than beating kids over the head with standardized tests,” Dearman said. “Measuring a child like that is wrong. I don’t believe in it.”
She said the support from the principal is phenomenal. “The leadership drives what is going on in this building,” Dearman said. “From my experience, I know success is determined by the leadership in the school.”
Dearman said she had a lot of misconceptions about public charter schools was hesitant to take the position. She believed the myths and generalizations that the innovative schools didn’t have to take children with special needs or offer transportation. Now she knows how very wrong she was about how they operate.
“I’ve changed my mind,” she said. “Now I see public charter schools have done away with the bureaucracy and given the authority back to the teachers. I’m living in a bubble right now and I’m happier and healthier.”
Down the street, Renaissance’s junior high school facility, located in a former J.C. Penney’s retail building, is providing the children with a seamless education on a secondary campus. The sixth- through eighth-grade population brings the total enrollment to 520 students.
ARS Lead Principal Stephen Gay said 100 potential students are on a wait list. He said a random school lottery every spring determines who will get in and who will not.
“It’s a time when there is a lot of joy for those who make it,” he said. “But it’s also an occasion for a lot of tears by parents who didn’t get their student in.”
Gay said he’s watched the school grow and thrive over the 12 years he’s been there. He came from the nearby traditional Hickory Public School System, where he was both a teacher and administrator.
“I loved working there,” he said. “When I was approached the first time by this school’s board members to be the principal, I said ‘no.’”
When asked again, Gay reconsidered because he realized the charter school would allow him and the rest of the teaching staff to shape their own educational vision and future.
“I sat down with a legal pad, took our charter, and we decided what our school was going to be like,” he said. “We looked at the whole child, developing them into individuals and it sort of evolved from there.”
Gay said middle school students are prepared for college, given a laptop, and expected to adhere to a few basic expectations and core values that are incorporated into each school day.
“They must come to school wearing their uniform, do their homework and turn it in,” he said. “They must … make good decisions and respect others.”
Gay said the junior high setting uses a “looping concept,” where students have the same teacher for three years. He said all grade levels augment North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study with a lot of hands-on group exploratory and experiential classroom experiences.
He also said the school’s biggest success stories often can be found outside the confines of the classroom.
“We are not bound by these four walls,” he said. “Success is often found outside the building as we do things in the community. We actually give our students a place where they can mess up. We are a safety net, not only a place where they can develop academic excellence, but where they can find respect, support, and safety. We continually look at how the students mature as individuals and adapt to that.”
Eighth grader Ashlen Robinson is thankful for their guidance.
“If I have troubles, they specifically work on that instead of moving on,” she said. “The teachers are dedicated to me and they want us to learn.”
Gay said public charter schools continue to attract many students because they offer variety.
“Traditional public schools are like Cracker Barrels,” he said. “They are all the same. Charter schools are like a mom and pop restaurant. We add a little flavor.”
Karen Welsh is a contributor to Carolina Journal.