Summit Charter School - Cashiers, North Carolina

Seeking Excellence

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Fax: (828) 743-9157

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Each day in my words and in my deeds I will do my best to live these seven virtues...

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Educational Vision | History | Charter School | 4 C's | Policies & Procedures

Summit Charter School Early History

The creation of Summit Charter School grew out of a series of meetings at the Church of the Good Shepherd beginning in January 1996. The focus of these meetings was education in our community and what could be done to improve the quality of education. These meetings led to the formation of Education Tomorrow, a smaller group that was organized to deal more specifically with educational concerns in Cashiers, Highlands and the surrounding area.

In the spring, Education Tomorrow became aware that the state legislature was giving serious consideration to charter school legislation. The group immediately began to investigate the charter school movement, not just in North Carolina, but also throughout the country. More than twenty states had passed charter school legislation since 1991 when Minnesota launched the movement. California and Arizona had more than 100 charter schools each.

The North Carolina legislature passed charter school legislation in June 1996. At that point, Education Tomorrow became serious about this being an outstanding opportunity to establish an alternative school of excellence in the Cashiers/Highlands area.

In the late summer of 1996, the Education Tomorrow group was introduced to a broad school plan developed by Dr. Ernest Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, entitled "The Basic School." After having read the literature, Education Tomorrow became increasingly interested in the concept and, as a result, made contact with the Basic School Network, a group of schools committed to the Basic School concept. One of the Network schools, David Cox Road Elementary School, is a magnet school in Charlotte. In November, two members of the Education Tomorrow group visited Cox Road School and returned even more enthusiastic about the Basic School plan, having seen it in action.

In the meantime, Education Tomorrow moved ahead with plans to establish a Charter School, specifically Summit Charter School. On October 1997, Summit was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation, and a Board of Directors was formed. Late in October, the Summit Board submitted its charter application to the State Board of Education. This was a signal that the Summit Board was committed to establishing an alternative school in the Cashiers/Highlands area.

Because enthusiasm for the Basic School concept continued to grow amongst Summit's Board members, a decision was made in January to invite the principal and the Basic School coordinator from Cox Road School and their cooperating professor from UNC-Charlotte to conduct a workshop in Cashiers. On January 23-24, John Fries, Joy Warner and Janet Finke gave the Board a comprehensive look at the Basic School concept and how it had been fully implemented at an 800-student public school in North Charlotte. Following the workshop, the Board decided that Summit Charter School would adopt the Basic School plan.

On January 15, two members of the Summit Board traveled to Raleigh for a required interview by the State Board of Education. They returned with the knowledge that the Summit charter application was comprehensive and well received and that the interview had gone well. With this encouraging outcome, the Summit Board moved ahead with basic planning for the school, including the search for a Director, facilities needs, public relations and fund raising. In mid March, the Board conducted a Town Meeting at the Cashiers Library. More than 100 attended the meeting, clearly indicating growing interest in Summit Charter School.

Through much of February and into March, the Board dealt with numerous challenges, most of which came from the State relative to various aspects of the North Carolina Charter School Law. On March 15, Summit Charter School received final approval for its charter from the State Board of Education, a very important day for the school.

The school then sent a mailing to all box holders and RFD residents in Cashiers, Highlands, Glenville and Sapphire, urging them to complete and return a tear-off slip with pertinent information if they were interested in Summit. Parents representing more than 160 children returned the tear-off slip. In early April, the school sent a cover letter and admissions application to all parents who returned the slip. As of April 18, 1997, when the school had to submit an enrollment estimate to the State and when the Board decided to set a deadline to plan realistically for needed facilities, completed student applications numbered 112.