Weeks after the North Carolina Board of Education ordered a second look at a rejected charter application, the state Charter School Review Board voted Monday to move Cape View Leadership Academy closer to opening in Pender County, despite questions about its management contract and business model.
The vote moves the proposed school into the state’s “Ready to Open” phase, giving the school time to finalize contracts and address budget questions before any final approval.
The reversal follows an appeal to the State Board of Education, which ruled that the school and its partner, ACCEL Schools, may not have had a full opportunity to respond to questions during the board’s December interview before the application was denied.
On Monday, ACCEL Executive Vice President Mary Gifford flew in to provide the budget details that local school board members previously struggled to explain.
Cape View Leadership Academy has proposed opening a grades 6–12 career and technical charter school in Pender County. The Charter School Review Board blocked the application in December, citing concerns about the school’s academic model, its plan to serve students with disabilities, and a lack of clarity on its finances.
Much of Monday’s discussion focused on the school’s draft budget and its management agreement with ACCEL Schools, a for-profit company that oversees roughly 100 schools in 19 states.
Board members said the budget relies heavily on outside funding from ACCEL — about $521,000 in the first year, $882,000 in the second, and more than $1 million annually in later years.
Review board member Rita Haire pressed Gifford on whether the money would be structured as loans or gifts, and whether the company could collect management fees on the funds.
“If you didn’t gift it or loan it, they could be about a half-million dollars in the deficit every year,” said Haire.
“The school has the option of this being a loan or a gift,” Gifford told the board. “That will depend on enrollment. That will depend on facility.”
Under the current draft, ACCEL could collect a 15% management fee on the very money it provides to cover the school’s deficits, a setup that critics say allows the company to profit from its own financial support.
ACCEL, which was formed in 2014 as part of the education company Pansophic Learning, has expanded rapidly by taking over struggling charter schools across the country.
The company has also faced criticism from some education researchers and watchdog groups over its business model and management practices. In Ohio, for example, critics have raised concerns about charter schools accumulating debt while paying interest on loans from the management company.
In 2024, federal regulators also ordered the Accel Charter Schools Network to address lead paint and asbestos concerns at three Ohio schools after inspections raised potential health risks.
Gifford told the board Monday that ACCEL was willing to revise the agreement with Cape View to clarify how startup funds would be treated and to ensure the school could choose its own vendors. She also said any facilities lease would be handled separately from the management contract.
Haire, who led the pushback, voted in favor after noting the school has until 2027 to finalize its legal and financial framework.
“Because their agreement is a draft, and because now they’ve been made aware of any concerns that we’ve noted, then that can be really brought to clarity,” Haire said.
Some members voted against the motion, saying the financial questions should be resolved before the school advances further in the approval process.
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