Charter schools searching for facilities funding put pressure on parents

Willow Oak Montessori, a public charter school in Chapel Hill, is searching for facilities funding in the pockets of parents — and one in particular is feeling the pressure.

The charter school currently runs out of a rented facility, said Jeff Harelson, whose 11-year-old son is a sixth grader at Willow Oak.

Harelson said the school is always running fundraisers and asking for donations.

“Parents donate supplies, time and effort,” he said. “One person started a garden, people paint murals — but sometimes it’s like ‘you asked me for something last week.’”

Charter schools must be more efficient with their finances due to the smaller amount of money they receive in comparison to public schools.

Harelson chose Willow Oak because it offered a positive environment for his son with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“It’s Montessori, so he has the ability to move around,” he said. “We wanted to give him a regular outlet — we didn’t want to use drugs.”

As a Montessori charter school, Willow Oak can design their own curriculum with Common Core standards in mind and can give leeway to their teachers in terms of classroom management.

However, they are not as flexible financially.

Public schools are granted capital funding, but charter schools are not. Funding for charter school buildings comes from other areas — such as the allotment determined by the average daily attendance rate and the daily headcount, which is granted to the school by the county.

While charter schools are able to accept students from multiple counties, they are limited by the difference in funding each county provides.

“We get our allotments based on a student’s location in the county,” said Tammy Finch, principal of The Expedition School in Hillsborough. “Each county funds students slightly differently — Alamance gives significantly less money than Orange County, for example.”

Public charter schools must use these allotments for school operations and facilities, Finch said. This puts pressure on the school to obtain loans and generate other forms of revenue. It also puts pressure on parents and children to be present at the beginning of the year or risk losing money crucial to their school’s operations.

“The start of the school year for a charter school is a crucial time because all students must be in their seats the first 20 days,” Finch said. “The same goes for public schools — they do a seat count as well — but the largeness of the district doesn’t impact them as much.”

A portion of the head count funding is taken away from the school for each day a student is absent from a North Carolina charter school during the first 20 days, she said.

At The Expedition School, students who don’t attend the first day and cannot be contacted are replaced with a student from the waitlist to ensure the school gets state funding for all of the available seats, Finch said.

“We really encourage families to make sure all of our students are attending,” she said. “The start of the school year is a very exciting time.”

Other schools in the Triangle are also expanding and with that comes the need for financing.

Eno River Academy, a public charter school in Hillsborough, added ninth and tenth grade this year. The school is in the process of building a new facility on Highway 57, said Tracy Bullins, office manager of Eno River Academy.

The school is always looking for new methods of fundraising, she said.

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