Glenn Byrum of Mountain Island Charter School. Photo courtesy of CharterFolk.
CharterFolk has a new spotlight story out on Glenn Byrum, the executive director of Mountain Island Charter School in Mount Holly, North Carolina. In the article, he references the importance of advocacy along with the Coalition and the North Carolina Association of Public Charter Schools, where he serves as a board member.
We share an article excerpt below.
Glenn Byrum had big dreams for his career. Firmly rooted in his values and a deep sense of responsibility, he was sure he was going to do humanitarian work abroad. He even earned his bachelor’s degree in Spanish to help prepare.
After graduating college, he took a slight detour on his route to humanitarian work—he and his wife started a family, and he worked at a high school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The detour got a little longer after a stint as an elementary school Spanish teacher.
Still “figuring out” what he wanted to do, Glenn got a master’s degree in Spanish literature. He was hired at age 27 to be Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ world languages curriculum specialist—supervising language programming at more than 40 elementary and middle schools in Mecklenburg County. In that role, he helped spearhead a federal grant program bringing Arabic to the district—the first time in-person Arabic instruction had been offered in North Carolina.
‘Start-up energy’
But working at a large district—Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools serves nearly 150,000 students—presented challenges to Glenn.
“I felt like it was hard to get traction in a central office role in a large district,” he said. “So with care and skepticism, I approached a charter school.”
Mountain Island Charter School. Courtesy of MICS/Facebook.
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