The Rev. Robert Campbell, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, sent this letter to the Office of Charter Schools in opposition to the proposed Lee Scholars Charter School. The school will be considered for approval in the new year. (All text in bold is Campbell's emphasis.)

Dear Application Review Committee:

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and other concerned citizens of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District (CHCCS) respectfully request that your Committee reject the application for a charter school written by a Grand Rapids, Michigan for-profit corporation, the National Heritage Academies, Inc. (NHA)  We just learned the application was endorsed by a group of dedicated people from the Triangle area.  We know and respect  many of them.  It is on the fast track and the NHA proposes to open the school in 9 months.  

It is the position of the NAACP and our allies that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District (CHCCS) does not need this School.  The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP stands firmly on the position of no diversion of taxpayers' money from our public schools to support the NHA's profiting from building a new school here. We throw our support behind the new superintendent of our schools, Dr. Thomas Forcella, and our new, duly-elected school board to determine the policies and personnel to meet our shared objective of educational success for every student.  We believe Supt. Forcella, the Board, and the team he is assembling are committed to work with the community stakeholders to forge a new path to end the achievement gap and advocate for diverse, constitutional, and high quality schools for all of our children.

The NHA did not see fit to inform or check with Dr. Forcella and his staff when it developed the proposal.  We urge you to investigate how this proposal was put together, its  purposes other than to make a profit for the NHA, and the impact it will have on the plans of the new Superintendent and his team to improve the educational experiences of all the students in our District.  The NHA application purports to meet three primary needs the NHA has identified in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community: 1) close achievement gaps; 2) prepare students for a rigorous high school and college preparatory program; and 3) alleviate overcrowding in elementary schools.  On information and belief, the Grand Rapids proposal writers have, in other proposals, stated quite similar “needs” in disparate school districts.  Although there are several problems with the application being submitted, we focus on these three “needs” the NHA has identified in our community.

From correspondent Brooks Dareff

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education will discuss a proposed charter school that targets the school district’s achievement gap during its meeting tonight. (See agenda here.)

The Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School advanced to the next stage of the state application process Wednesday as an N.C. Department of Public Instruction committee sent it forward for an interview in January, said Joel Medley, director of the department’s charter schools office. The state board of education will decide on applications in March.

The school would be named for the former Chapel Hill mayor – the South’s first post-Reconstruction black mayor in a predominantly white town – and his wife, herself a former local educator. Lee applicants plan to open what would by its fourth year be a 723-student, kindergarten-through-eighth grade school at an as yet undecided location in August 2012, according to the application.

City Schools Superintendent Thomas Forcella has disputed the applicants’ contention that the school is needed to help close the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students. Forcella also has noted plans for an 11th district elementary school to open in August 2013 in countering applicants’ citing of schools overcrowding. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP has gone on record opposing the charter school, in part because it would divert public money from the school district.

A set of staff recommendations on easing overcrowding in three of the district’s elementary schools for the 2012-13 school year is also among the items on the school board’s agenda. Among the recommendations is spot redistricting one Glenwood Elementary neighborhood to Rashkis, where it would then stay beyond 2012-13.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Chapel Hill Town Hall, located at 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Here's a look at today's local headlines:

YMCA MERGER? Talk of a potential merger between the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA and the Y of the Triangle has some concerned because local Y policies offer LGBT members and workers the same benefits as everyone else. Lana Douglas has our update.   

BOHEMIA ON THE BOULEVARD: A Durham developer has renovated Straw Valley off Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard (do people in Chapel Hill just call it Chapel Hill Boulevard?). What's Straw Valley? Read Monica Chen's story.

NAACP OPPOSES CHARTER SCHOOL: This proposed Howard and Lillian Lee school is an interesting story, isn't it? Now the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP is weighing in, saying the charter school would hurt the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and might not even help those who need help the most. What do you think?  

The CHN goes to print Monday nights, so read today's News & Observer for the latest on the Laurence Lovette trial.  Elsewhere in the CHN, see 3 cool taekwondo pictures, find out why Chancellor Thorp went to the White House and what "dirty business" professor emeritus Robert Cox wants UNC out of, and read what two letters writers have to say about the resurrection of Joe Rowand.

And remember, please send your short essays, poems and photos for our annual Readers Writes issue this coming week. We're asking for submissions around the theme of new beginnings, and we could use some more. 

Thanks for reading,

Mark 

A proposed charter school named for Chapel Hill’s first black mayor is spotlighting the local school district’s achievement gap.

Angela Lee, daughter of Howard Lee, the first black mayor of a predominantly white Southern town, has applied to open a charter school in Chapel Hill.

The Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School would “provide high-quality K-8 education that places each student on the path to college readiness and closes achievement gaps.”

It would open in August 2012, serving 480 students as an elementary school and expand each year to eventually serve 700 students through eighth grade.

Howard Lee said the school would give students and their parents more options to help them succeed. The application is not meant to place blame or criticize the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

“It’s not my goal to get in a debate with the local system and [I] certainly don’t question the progress they’re making with some students, but some student regardless of what progress is being made can benefit from a different environment,” Lee said.

“Public school can never, in my opinion, rise to the point of having all students rise to the highest level because of the size and the diversity,” he continued. “But a charter school, if it’s run correctly, can take students and give them the more intensified attention that they can’t get in the public schools.”

Read more on this story, including a response from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent Thomas Forcella, this weekend in the N&O and CHN.