PEAK Academy says it's closing the achievement gap. Asheville council will give it $501K
ASHEVILLE - A West Asheville charter school created to close the glaring achievement gap between the city's Black and white students came to City Council with a request: It needs $590,000 to get through the current school year.
The funding would assist in "keeping (its) doors open," said a letter from the school's Executive Director Kidada Wynn, as PEAK Academy, opened in 2021, struggles to recover from "growing pains," created in part by doubling enrollment in its third year and the addition of two grade levels.
Asheville City Council unanimously directed $501,384 in grant funds to PEAK Academy in a Feb. 27 vote, the last of the city's American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The city was awarded $26.3 million of federal COVID-19 recovery funding in 2021.
Also in support of PEAK Academy, in November, council approved $50,000 in Strategic Partnership Grant funding for the school.
"This is a form of reparations," said Mayor Esther Manheimer of the PEAK funding. Though charter schools are often used to "re-segregate" school systems, she said, PEAK represents a "rare exception."
Of reparations, Vice Mayor Kilgore echoed Manheimer's comments, and said she hopes Asheville and Buncombe County's ongoing reparations effort, led by the Community Reparations Commission, will continue to put support behind equitable education for Black students.
“Our children are our foundation, and I cannot think of a better way to subsidize education when it’s actually reducing an achievement gap,” Kilgore said, noting Asheville's achievement gap is among the highest in the state.
What now?
Asheville City Council first received an ARPA funding request from the school in September, in the form of Wynn's letter. The city staff report notes the request was "unsolicited," as the city had not yet created a process for its remaining ARPA funds. Similar requests also came from others in the city, though PEAK was the first to formalize it in writing.
Council members discussed the request at a Feb. 13 meeting, inviting PEAK to make a formal application. Since then, staff confirmed with both the Treasury Department and School of Government that the letter meets ARPA application requirements and that the school is eligible for funding.
Its Feb. 27 approval directs City Manager Debra Campbell to coordinate with PEAK to collect all federally required information to formalize a final grant agreement for the $501,384. City Council will consider a formal grant agreement and budget amendment March 12.
Manheimer said she was "deeply concerned" about PEAK sustaining itself over time, but added the school was in conversation about working toward a permanent funding fix.
What is PEAK?
PEAK Academy opened for the 2021-22 school year in the former Azalea Mountain School building at 27 Balm Grove Ave. Since its opening, the school has grown from 82 students to 175, and expanded to serve kindergarten through fifth grade. It was intended to aggressively address race- and income-based academic disparities among Asheville students.
Charter schools are public schools operated by nonprofit boards. The schools have open enrollment, and no tuition is charged to attend. Tax dollars are the primary funding source.
More: Proposed Asheville charter school to focus on black, low-income students
Throughout its application for charter status, PEAK rebuked Asheville City Schools and the broad gap in academic outcomes between the district's white and Black students. The gap, which PEAK called “deplorable” in its application, widened over the 2010s.
During a January presentation to City Council, PEAK's board chair Gene Bell said the school is already beginning to close the gap.
More than 80% of PEAK Academy's student population is Black, Bell told the Citizen Times Feb. 28.
According to data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, for the 2022-23 end-of-year tests, in Asheville City Schools, 13.8% of the district's Black third graders scored above grade-level proficiency in math, versus 80.1% of white students.
At PEAK Academy, by that same metric, 72.2% of its students third-graders are proficient.
For reading, at ACS, 15.5% of its Black third-graders are proficient, versus 75.6% white students. At PEAK Academy, 44.4% of its students are proficient.
"By 2025-2026, our plan is to change the narrative that students who live in Asheville of lower socioeconomic status, of color, or who make up the achievement gap can not perform or grow socially, emotionally, or academically," Wynn's letter said.
PEAK receives between $6,000 to $8,000 per student from the state, she said, but face lacking building capacity, steep food and uniform costs and new accelerating transportation needs. The budget is $2.6 million for this school year alone.
More: $500K remains of Asheville's $26.3M in ARPA funds. What now?
More: Asheville schools consider potential middle school reconfiguration among $4.5M shortfall
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville council directs staff to finalize $501K for PEAK Academy
