By MATT LAMB
Staff Writer
As charter school populations continue to grow in Moore County, students in grades four through nine will have an additional flexible alternative next fall: STARS Virtual Academy.
Sandhills Theatre Arts Renaissance School (STARS) will take advantage of a recent change in state law that allows brick-and-mortar charter schools to offer remote learning opportunities. STARS aims to serve between 10 and 20 students in each grade level, offsetting a waitlist that exceeded 800 students last year.
Initially opened in 1999, STARS relocated to its permanent campus just off U.S. 1, north of Southern Pines, in 2006. It currently serves just under 800 students. During the 2015-2016 school year, STARS introduced high school programming but has since phased it out as fiscally untenable.
Charter schools have operated in North Carolina since the mid-1990s. Authorized by the state and operated by independent nonprofit boards, charters receive more latitude or programmatic flexibility than traditional public schools. They are funded by state and local tax dollars, and all students eligible to attend North Carolina public schools are eligible to apply to charters for admission.
The state originally imposed a cap of 100 such schools. State legislation authorizing charters enumerated goals like improving student learning and increasing opportunities for at-risk and academically gifted students; encouraging innovative teaching methods; and providing parents with more choices for their children.
Charters are prohibited from affiliating with specific religious institutions and are not permitted to discriminate in their admissions process. Additionally, charters are mandated to hold lotteries for seats when demand exceeds availability.
In the program’s first year, 33 charters opened; by 2020, the number statewide had increased to 99. The following year, the General Assembly amended the legislation to remove the 100-charter cap. By the 2022-2023 school year, North Carolina was home to 206 charter schools, serving 140,000 students, or approximately 8 percent of the total student population.
2023 marked a watershed year for charter schools with two critical pieces of legislation that paved the way for significant growth.
One law allowed all charters not deemed “low-performing” to increase their maximum enrollment each year without review. Another law removed the State Board of Education from the process of approving charter schools. Now, the Charter School Review Board (CSRB) has the sole authority to approve or deny new charter school applications.
Based on end-of-grade and end-of-course testing, in the 2023-2024 school year, 27 percent of charters were identified as “low-performing,” having received a “D” or “F” letter grade and “met” or “not met” expected growth metrics. Comparatively, 29 percent of traditional public schools were deemed “low performing” that academic year.
Moore County has three charter schools: The Academy of Moore County in Aberdeen, Moore Montessori in Southern Pines, and STARS in Vass. The schools are collectively home to over 1,500 students, wjile Moore County Schools account for around 13,000 students.
STARS Virtual Academy has already navigated the CSRB and received the go-ahead to open for the 2025-2026 school year.
In an interview with The Pilot, Jonathan Seawell, STARS’ assistant principal for kindergarten through eighth grade, explained the impetus behind starting a virtual charter.
“During COVID, everybody went that way, and most schools still offer some type of virtual learning,” he said. “We figured it’s not going anywhere; if anything, it’s more relevant, so we thought it was a good time to jump in and offer this to our families.”
Seawell said that with high demand, some students don’t get seats in the physical school. With no virtual waitlist, he said students who attend the Virtual Academy could effectively get bumped higher in the queue for the following year.
“Our families that are trying to get into STARS, the ones that don’t get in, they’ll get an email that says, ‘If you are still interested in being part of STARS, then next year if you want to be, you’ll be on board and have a better chance of being in-person.’”
The new virtual school will be partnering with Edmentum, a company that provides online digital curriculum and instructional services, with what they call “a cutting-edge digital learning experience.”
“They have different tiers,” Seawell said of Edmentum. “We will be using the tier that provides all the instruction, then, as we see how successful it is, we will start to integrate some of our teachers and offer some of our electives because we have an extensive offering of different electives.”
STARS has long placed a premium on both education and performing arts, and Seawell hopes that eventually, the Virtual Academy will offer a sort of hybrid learning experience where students can participate in the school’s traditional programs.
Moore County Schools also offers its own Connect Academy, a virtual learning platform that provides parents in the district with an additional educational choice.
Leaning on the STARS’ performing arts traditions, Seawell said that eventually, the Virtual Academy’s electives will differentiate it from Connect Academy. “When they can be a part of our shows and musicals, dance and robotics, that will give us a leg up,” he said.
Overall, Seawell sees the Virtual Academy as a strong alternative for parents.
“If they need the flexibility of the Virtual Academy, Edmentum gives them flexibility,” he said. “We are also able to offer a lot of support; we don’t have a whole district to maintain. We have an EC (Exceptional Children) specialist making sure IEP (Individualized Education Program) services are offered; then, they’ll have an opportunity to experience an education that public schools can’t provide at this point because of the focus on the different arts, technology and music.”
Students across North Carolina are currently eligible to apply for enrollment to the Virtual Academy on STARS’ website.
Contact Matt Lamb at (910) 693-2479 or mlamb@thepilot.com.
