NC board orders charter school to close mid-year. Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Review Board revoked Triad International Studies Academy’s charter, closing Dec 30.
- TISA enrolled 45 students, falling short of the 80-student state charter minimum.
- School leaders will coordinate an orderly December shutdown and may forgo appeals.
A new North Carolina charter school has been ordered to close in December due to not having enough students.
The N.C. Charter Schools Review Board revoked the charter on Monday for Triad International Studies Academy (TISA) in Guilford County, effective Dec. 30. The Review Board cited how TISA only has 45 students instead of the state-mandated minimum of 80 students for charter schools.
The Review Board also questioned TISA’s ability to operate financially with a third of the students it had originally projected.
“I hate that things have fallen into the place that they are, but the reality is we’ve got to protect the fiduciary efforts of this state,” said John Eldridge, vice chair of the Review Board. “I’m hoping you guys will not let this bring you down and you’ll be back.”
Charter schools have the right under state law to appeal revocation decisions to the State Board of Education. But TISA leaders said they will work with the state Office of Charter Schools to close the school down.
“We will follow all the procedures to close the school in an orderly and nice way, and we will treat the parents and kids nicely in the best way that we can,” said Chaowei Zhu, chair of TISA’s board of trustees.
School seeks waiver due to special-needs population
TISA opened in August in High Point with a dual-immersion language focus. That means students take some of their classes in Spanish or Chinese instead of English as a way to build their language proficiency.
TISA projected it would have 144 elementary school students. School leaders blamed the low enrollment on delays in facility renovations and due to an incident at a school Open House where a special-needs student assaulted other students.
The school wound up having a much higher percentage of special-needs students than it anticipated, accounting for 31% of its enrollment. TISA submitted a waiver request saying its unique student population constituted a compelling reason to let it operate under the 80-student minimum this school year
TISA said it could financially operate with as few as 50 students.
’Breaks my heart’ to revoke charter
The Review Board has granted enrollment waivers in the past, including allowing Anderson Academy to open in August in Winston-Salem with fewer than 80 students. Anderson got the waiver because it serves students from a residential foster home.
But unlike TISA, Anderson requested its waiver before the first day of classes.
Bruce Friend, chair of the Review Board, said TISA should have asked for a one-year delay in opening before the school year started. But he and other Review Board members expressed sympathy for TISA and the plight of parents who found a new home for their special-needs children.
“I’m torn because I’m thinking of the students talking in Chinese to you that are EC (exceptional children),” said Lindalyn Kakadelis, a Review Board member. “It breaks my heart that these families might have to go back to where they don’t want to go.”
Even with the vote, there will still be more than 200 charter schools open statewide.
Closure not acrimonious
In 2023, the Review Board revoked the charter mid-year for the School of the Arts for Boys Academy in Chatham County because it had fewer than 80 students. instead of closing, the school switched to being a private school.
Monday’s closure decision wasn’t acrimonious as in some past cases with other schools. Review Board members asked TISA to apply again in the future.
A state closure team will now be brought in to work with TISA to handle things such as the transfer of student records and school assets.
“There’s no hard feelings for this,” Zhu said. “I’ve been prepared for this. The numbers are not up and I know that you have a law to follow.”
Wake County charter school rejected
The Review Board also voted Monday to reject an application from Encompass Montessori, which wanted to open in the Knightdale area of Wake County in 2027.
In general, Montessori educators believe children benefit from doing things hands-on, so items such as blocks are available for them to use. The children are given the freedom, within limits, to learn at their own pace and do what interests them. The teachers act as observers who keep them on track.
School leaders envisioned Encompass as being the first of a new network of national Montessori charter schools that would be managed by Florida-based Epic Change Education. Epic would have been the charter management organization (CMO).
Review board members said they liked Epic’s concept. But they called the application a “first draft” and raised questions about the relationship between Epic and the local board of directors for Encompass.
“I kind of felt like when we were asking questions directly, they were looking behind them at the CMO to confirm their answers,” Friend said. “’Am I saying this right?’ That gives me pause. How well do they know this application?”
This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 2:05 PM.
