(The Center Square) – A new charter school in Fayetteville may not be able to open as planned later this month following a recommendation by a state school board panel on Monday.
The Charter School Review Board recommended that the state Board of Education not approve a charter for Agape Achievement Academy. It has been scheduled to open Aug. 21.
“Agape has not been able to present an acceptable budget within the required time frame despite a number opportunities,” school board member John Blackburn said Monday following the panel’s review of Agape’s application. “We support that finding,” Blackburn said.
The state school board is expected to issue a final vote on Agape at its meeting later this week.
“Agape Achievement Academy recognizes that a foundation in literacy is crucial to academic achievement in the upper grades and life-long scholarship,” the school says on its website. “We also recognize a foundation in literacy provides students with the strongest likelihood to meet their full potential as students.”
But questions over both enrollment and finances cast doubt on the school’s chances of opening its doors this month.
Agape was scheduled open for grades K-3 with an enrollment of 168, Ashley Baquero, director of the state’s Office of Charter Schools, told the school board panel Monday.
The application for a charter school was originally submitted in 2022.
Before opening, charter schools must first complete a year-long planning program called “Ready to Open,” Baquero said.
Schools must also present evidence of “readiness to operate,” which include proposed budgets that show the school at least breaking even financially, Baquero added.
Agape’s budget projections were either “incorrect or incomplete,” Baquero told the school board panel.
The proposed budget was returned to the school four times for revision, Baquero said.
“The fourth submission of the budget was deemed insufficient,” she said.
On Monday, school officials submitted another revised budget which projects the school having a surplus, William O’Kelly, chairman of the Agape board of directors, told the state board panel Monday. Changes in the new proposed budget include requiring employees to pay 20% of their health insurance costs, saving $19,200 per year.
