KVA leaders pondering their future business strategy
By Ray Gronberg rgronberg@hendersondispatch.com; 252-436-2850 Sep 1, 2021 Updated 11 hrs ago
HENDERSON — Stymied in two attempts to convert it into a charter school, the leaders of Kerr-Vance Academy are still looking for a long-term strategy for keeping the school on a sound business footing in the face of lower enrollment.
A meeting with parents on Monday perhaps moved them closer to finding one, as it’s said that trustees were looking to gauge support among the private school’s tuition-paying constituents for a property transaction that could significantly change its balance sheet.
Trustees told parents in March that a private investor had “offered to partner with us” in a purchase and leaseback deal that would clear KVA’s mortgage debt and help it “continue in a manner more feasible to a smaller school environment.”
Social-media rumblings ahead of the meeting and parent accounts indicate that there’s at least one other possibility on the table, but as of Wednesday the trustees weren’t saying anything publicly. Board Chairwoman Renee Wilder couldn’t be reached for comment; Vice Chairman Eddie Caudle declined comment and referred queries to Wilder.
The Dispatch tried to attend Monday’s meeting, but was refused permission to enter KVA’s gym and told the public could not attend.
One of the school’s founders, former state Rep. Jim Crawford, on Tuesday said it’s “going to be interesting to see how it all pans out.”
“I hope they haven’t made a sad mistake,” Crawford said, without elaborating. “That’s my comment.”
KVA’s dilemma is that the advent of charter schools in North Carolina has changed the competitive environment for private schools, just as it has for traditional public K-12 districts like the Vance County Schools and the Granville County Public Schools.
Relatively new charters like Henderson Collegiate, Vance Charter School and Oxford Prep have siphoned enrollment from public and private schools alike. At KVA, a facility sized to handle up to about 600 students as of the 2019-20 fiscal and academic year was serving 216, according to its annual nonprofit filing with the IRS.
Through last year, the apparently preferred solution of trustees was to see KVA become a charter school in some way. But an initial attempt on those lines in 2013 came up short, and a renewed effort in 2020 likewise collapsed.
The 2020 application — which called for KVA’s replacement by a new entity called Spartan Charter — sparked formal opposition from all three of the Tri-County’s traditional public K-12 school systems.
By Ray Gronberg rgronberg@hendersondispatch.com; 252-436-2850 Sep 1, 2021 Updated 11 hrs ago
HENDERSON — Stymied in two attempts to convert it into a charter school, the leaders of Kerr-Vance Academy are still looking for a long-term strategy for keeping the school on a sound business footing in the face of lower enrollment.
A meeting with parents on Monday perhaps moved them closer to finding one, as it’s said that trustees were looking to gauge support among the private school’s tuition-paying constituents for a property transaction that could significantly change its balance sheet.
Trustees told parents in March that a private investor had “offered to partner with us” in a purchase and leaseback deal that would clear KVA’s mortgage debt and help it “continue in a manner more feasible to a smaller school environment.”
Social-media rumblings ahead of the meeting and parent accounts indicate that there’s at least one other possibility on the table, but as of Wednesday the trustees weren’t saying anything publicly. Board Chairwoman Renee Wilder couldn’t be reached for comment; Vice Chairman Eddie Caudle declined comment and referred queries to Wilder.
The Dispatch tried to attend Monday’s meeting, but was refused permission to enter KVA’s gym and told the public could not attend.
One of the school’s founders, former state Rep. Jim Crawford, on Tuesday said it’s “going to be interesting to see how it all pans out.”
“I hope they haven’t made a sad mistake,” Crawford said, without elaborating. “That’s my comment.”
KVA’s dilemma is that the advent of charter schools in North Carolina has changed the competitive environment for private schools, just as it has for traditional public K-12 districts like the Vance County Schools and the Granville County Public Schools.
Relatively new charters like Henderson Collegiate, Vance Charter School and Oxford Prep have siphoned enrollment from public and private schools alike. At KVA, a facility sized to handle up to about 600 students as of the 2019-20 fiscal and academic year was serving 216, according to its annual nonprofit filing with the IRS.
Through last year, the apparently preferred solution of trustees was to see KVA become a charter school in some way. But an initial attempt on those lines in 2013 came up short, and a renewed effort in 2020 likewise collapsed.
The 2020 application — which called for KVA’s replacement by a new entity called Spartan Charter — sparked formal opposition from all three of the Tri-County’s traditional public K-12 school systems.
