On March 4, the North Carolina State Board of Education officially approved a charter for the new Lake Lure Classical Academy: A Challenge Foundation Academy. In August of last year, a preliminary charter was granted to Lake Lure and two other potential new schools. With a charter now in place, the opening of the academy in Lake Lure will mark the end of a near 50-year hiatus without a local school in the Lake Lure area where Rutherford, Henderson, Polk, Buncombe and McDowell counties meet.

Opening this August, the school will initially serve kindergarten through seventh grade in temporary facilities near town on the site of the original Lake Lure School at 2520 Memorial Hwy. New, modular classrooms have been ordered and will be setup over the summer. 8th grade will be added in the fall of 2011 and another grade added each year. A permanent facility is being planned for a site off of Island Creek Road near Ingles.

Enrollment is limited, as class sizes are targeted at 22 with two class sections in each grade. Enrollment applications for the fall of 2010 will be accepted from March 5th through April 15th and are available online at www.llca.teamcfa.org. If any grades have more applications than seats available, a lottery will be held. Parents who previously submitted a letter of intent must also complete an application for enrollment.

The school board also announces the hiring of the schools director, Caroline Upchurch. Upchurch was most recently the assistant principal at Vance Charter School in Henderson, N.C. She will be working out of an initial school office in the historic arcade building in downtown Lake Lure and can be reached at 828-625-9292.

The Lake Lure Classical Academy: A Challenge Foundation Academy (LLCA-CFA), is a tuition-free public charter school open to all North Carolina students. Classes will begin in the fall of 2010 serving K-7 and growing to K-12. The curriculum utilizes the Core Knowledge Sequence, a detailed outline of specific content to be taught in language arts, history, geography, mathematics, science and fine arts. The high school program will offer a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum that prepares students for a lifetime of critical thinking, self-motivated learning and active citizenship. www.llca.teamcfa.org

The Challenge Foundation is a private charitable trust established in 1989 with a mission to support model educational initiatives. Through TeamCFA, the Foundation supports a growing network of charter schools dedicated to the mission of student achievement, academic excellence, measurable results and bringing school choice to more students and their families. There are currently five TeamCFA schools on nine campuses in three states serving more than 3,000 students. www.teamcfa.org.