By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com

Parents, staff and even students at Central Carolina Academy showed up Friday afternoon at an emergency meeting of the public charter school’s board of directors seeking answers about a wholesale change in the school’s administration, but were frustrated by the vague responses they received.

Word began circulating through the community earlier this week that the school’s three administrators — Principal Greg Batten and Assistant Principals Frank Thompson and Mary Tatum — were no longer with the organization. All three had been with the school since its opening in 2022.

A message sent by the school to parents that was shared with The Rant on Thursday indicated that Batten had “decided to retire” and that Mitch Stensland, a member of “the Central Services team … with over 30 years of experience in school administration” was filling the role for the time being. Batten’s retirement came less than a week after the end of the school year. CCA responded to an inquiry from The Rant on Friday confirming Batten’s retirement and said Thompson had decided to retire at the end of May. The email indicated Tatum was still in her role, although it was clear during the meeting that her exit was imminent.

Charter schools in North Carolina are publicly funded but independently operated by nonprofit boards under state-approved charters. They are not part of county public school systems.

The board met Friday afternoon in one of the school’s classrooms, and at least 30 others, including Tatum and Thompson, were present, many of them holding signs with messages such as “we chose CCA for the people — not your politics” and “students and parents deserve the truth.”

A group of parents, teachers and students at Central Carolina Academy showed up at an emergency meeting of the school’s board on Friday to protest a wholesale change of the school’s administration. Photo by Gordon Anderson

The board’s only action on Friday was to go into a closed session that lasted for more than an hour for the purpose of consulting with their attorney. The board adjourned following the closed session, but its members stayed in place afterwards to field questions about the changes. A video conference that had been set up to allow virtual attendance maxed out after 100 additional participants logged in.

“I’m gonna sit right here and I’m gonna listen,” Board Chair Don Sloan told the audience, stipulating that privacy laws prevented him from discussing any personnel decisions.

Tatum was among the first to speak up.

“Why is my contract not being renewed?” she asked.

Sloan cited the same “legal issues” and offered to talk with Tatum in private.

A common thread in the audience questions was Central Services, the charter management organization hired by CCA to manage the school, and whether the board was dictating the actions of Central Services or the other way around.

“Central Services makes recommendations,” Sloan told the group. “We can approve those recommendations.”

Central Services appears to oversee operations at both CCA and Chatham Charter School in Siler City, and Chatham Charter’s website staff page identifies five employees listed as the “Central Services Team for Chatham Charter & Central Carolina Academy.” CCA was created as a replication of the Chatham Charter model.

Tatum said CCA’s board “is being micromanaged by the Central Services committee.” She alleged that the board approved a 65 page policy earlier in the academic year that “shifted governance to Central Services” and that details about the vote were “not included in (meeting) minutes.”

Stensland acknowledged that as acting principal, he’ll be working for both CCA and Central Services. He said more involvement by the organization’s School Improvement Team would be among changes CCA would see under his leadership, and also mentioned an apparently unsolved incident of vandalism in one of the school’s bathrooms as something that needed addressing. It was unclear if that incident had ever been cited as an issue over which to overhaul the administration

“There was $30,000 of vandalism to the school and there have been no consequences,” he said.

But attendees who spoke didn’t seem convinced any change was necessary.

Teacher Matt Mendiguren said he’d “seen nothing but successes here – so my question is if it’s not broken, why are we trying to fix it?”

Other concerns raised during the meeting included the scheduling of board meetings during work hours and whether the board had enough members to properly operate under its own bylaws.

For his part, Sloan reiterated that he couldn’t talk about personnel decisions, but said he’d never make decisions he didn’t think were in the best interests of the students – which include his own children.

“I promise I’m looking out for my children’s best interest, just like yours,” he said. “I can promise this isn’t some vast conspiracy.”

A Change.org petition started by a student, which had more than 600 signatures as of this writing, asked for “transparency and reason behind these decisions” and that the organization “reinstate our beloved administration team.”

Parent Brandy Grindle said the fact that a student started a petition which spoke so highly of their school’s administration spoke volumes about the quality of those administrators.

“It floored me that a student would write those things,” she said.