McCrory dedicates expansion of Phoenix Academy
Gov. Pat McCrory joined several hundred people gathered Thursday morning at Phoenix Academy to celebrate the latest expansion of the charter school that’s steadily grown during the past 15 years.
The academy, founded by Paul and Kim Norcross as a small private school in 1998, recently completed a 40,000-square-foot addition on 26 acres along Clinard Farms Road in north High Point. The addition features standard science and aviation labs, a gymnasium, theater and athletic fields.
Phoenix Academy, which converted to a charter school 15 years ago, was among the first schools in North Carolina to embrace the trend toward charter schools and school choice.
The charter school movement has been controversial, with critics saying the schools divert critical resources from traditional public schools. But McCrory — whose family moved to Guilford County from Columbus, Ohio, when he was 9 years old — expressed his support for high-quality charter schools such as Phoenix Academy that meet rigorous academic standards. McCrory, who started out as a boy at Jamestown Elementary School, praised his teachers in Guilford County for engraining discipline in him and fostering a drive to learn.
“We need to make sure that parents and children have a choice where they go to school,” McCrory told the crowd.
Regardless of whether it’s a charter school or traditional school, the governor said, North Carolina public schools need to address the “skills gap” in preparing young people for the modern workforce. Employers in fields such as aviation and engineering will need qualified, well-trained workers to fill positions in which they are having a difficult time finding applicants, McCrory said.