Faith Academy’s new K-8 building, completed in 2023, sits atop a hill near J.T. Wyatt’s granite quarry.
Leaders at Faith Academy, Rowan County’s only public charter school, attribute its unlikely founding to community, commitment—and faith. A powerful trifecta, those things also reflect the spirit of the small town from which the school derives its name.
The town’s founder, J.T. Wyatt, a newspaperman turned quarry owner, reportedly named the town “Faith” in 1903, knowing he would need it in his new profession.
At Faith Academy, George Wilhelm, a retired Rowan County sheriff, school founder, and chair of the board of directors, described founders’ ethos in similar terms. “We had faith we could do it,” he said of their sturdy perseverance amid numerous early obstacles.
At the outset, school founders had no start-up or facility funds. In North Carolina, for instance, charter schools receive no capital funds from the state. In addition, while Faith Academy’s founders possessed deep expertise in their respective fields, they were mostly novices when it came to the state’s charter sector. Upping the ante: The new school would need to open on an accelerated timeline.
“We started from absolutely nothing—and really, not knowing a whole lot about it,” said Liz Morrow, a CPA, school founder, and Faith Academy’s board treasurer.
Even state charter authorizers were skeptical. “Nobody wanted to believe we could get 500 kids the first year,” Wilhelm said.
Yet, Faith Academy opened on time in August 2021, fully enrolled. Now in its fourth year, the school serves 940 students from seven counties in kindergarten through tenth grade.
In fact, enrollment cannot keep pace with demand. Over 500 students remain on the school’s waitlist.
An ending—and a beginning
Faith Academy began with another school’s ending. The local school district, Rowan-Salisbury Schools, had decided to shutter the town’s beloved, and only, public elementary school. “We knew for quite a long time that there was a plan to close Faith School,” said Tim Williams, a retired pharmacist and Faith Academy founder. “The community was opposed to that.”
At the time of its closure, Faith Elementary School served 325 students, who would be displaced. For town residents committed to the idea of a community school and cognizant of its impact on the local economy, the closure left a vacuum. “Faith School was a beacon in the community for learning and instruction,” Williams said. “We hated to see it close because it was going to really hurt our little town.”
Galvanized by the impending closure, community members and 200 concerned parents convened at the Rowan County Fairgrounds to discuss next steps. “I asked how many would stick with us if we decided to go with a charter school,” Wilhelm said. “Everybody in the room raised their hands.”
Early connections lead to a rapid launch
Emboldened, members of the core group struck out to visit nearby charter schools. Wilhelm and his wife, Amy, attended a state charter school conference. There, they connected with Charter Success Partners, a group that provides charter schools with financial and operational support. That pivotal connection led them to Steve Hubrich, a veteran charter school developer and the owner of Hubrich Contracting. These connections would prove instrumental in opening a charter school, and soon.
Meanwhile, Faith Academy’s founders were also seeking approval from the state’s then-Charter Schools Advisory Board and State Board of Education. “Charter Success Partners wrote our charter with our input,” said Morrow. “We didn’t have any money, so they gave us some start-up money before state funding came in,” she added. “They took a huge risk on us. We had no enrollment at that point.”
Other fortuitous developments occurred, with propulsive effects. The late Scott Brand, a developer, along with Steve Hubrich, created Faith Charter LLC. That group purchased the old Faith Elementary School building from the district in May 2021, right after the school closed. They also bought adjacent land for a new facility.
Just three months later, Faith Academy opened—in the old Faith School building, as tenants of Faith Charter LLC.
A cheerful classroom serves first graders in Faith Academy’s new facility.
Launching in that established facility was “crucial” for Faith Academy’s frugal board, said Morrow. “Since it was an old school, we were able to put away some cash because our rent was really low for two years.”
Gene Miller, another school founder who serves as the vice chair of Faith Academy’s board, said such financial savvy positioned the school to initiate new construction. “We have built out of our operating budget,” he said. “We have a $2 million fund balance, which shows how lean we’ve been.”
More funding hurdles—and more building projects
In addition to the old Faith School building, Faith Academy’s campus now includes a new facility, completed in October 2023. Students in kindergarten through eighth grade attend school in the new building, while ninth and tenth graders learn in the old Faith School building. Everywhere, the school melds old and new. A colorful library, filled with donated books, welcomes students in the new building. The school auditorium in the old building, with wooden seats and gilded mirrors, is reminiscent of a bygone era.
School library walls are lined with donated books.
Faith Academy’s board has cast a vision for additional building projects. Leaders hope to build a gymnasium and multipurpose area on the K-8 campus; they also plan to renovate the old school facility. Over the next two years, Faith Academy’s enrollment is expected to grow to include eleventh and twelfth grade students.
What about funding? Faith Academy is pursuing a low-interest loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is available to rural schools.
Faith Academy’s auditorium is part of the old Faith Elementary school building.
School leaders also approached county commissioners. A new law, passed in 2023, permits commissioners to provide charter schools with capital funding, if they wish. Unfortunately, Rowan County commissioners declined Faith Academy’s request. They were concerned, Morrow said, about setting a funding precedent for future charter schools as well as a lack of specificity in the law.
‘People see what charters can do’
Despite ongoing obstacles, however, Faith Academy has emerged as a standout success in an increasingly fraught charter start-up environment. Seven North Carolina charter schools, originally slated to open in 2024, ended up requesting a delay, largely due to challenges in finding and funding a facility.
At Faith Academy, the local community has helped bridge the gap, supporting the school with money and time. A $2 million capital campaign, launched to defray building expenses, has raised $550,000 to date. Funding has come from a foundation but also “small bits from a lot of different people,” said Morrow. “That just reveals a lot about our community.”
Donors are moved to give because of ties to the old Faith School and the community, said Alison Moore, Faith Academy’s lead administrator and K-8 principal. They’re also impressed by what they see. “People see what charters can do,” she said. “The vision and mission draw people in. It’s a good place to be.”
Such a sentiment is shared by local veteran educators, some of whom have come out of retirement to work and serve at Faith Academy. Moore is herself a veteran, having worked for over three decades in Rowan-Salisbury and Cabarrus County Schools. Chad Mitchell, the high school principal, is a former social studies teacher at East Rowan High School. Miller, the board’s vice chair, is a retired assistant superintendent of operations who worked for Rowan-Salisbury Schools and Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools.
For her part, Morrow marvels at the commitment of the school’s other founders, some of whom are retired. They have committed long hours to the school’s success, simply for the good of the community.
“Only a few of us had actual children at the school. My benefit is I’m getting this wonderful school for my own children,” she said. “But some of the others don’t have children there. They just love the community,” she added.
“It really feels like a special place.”
Read more about Faith Academy’s new school facility in the Salisbury Post.
