Charter school fires management company and principal. Will NC now let it stay open?
Updated April 7 with State Board of Education approving end of management contract with Torchlight.
An embattled Raleigh charter school has fired its management company and its principal in an effort to persuade state leaders to give it a second chance to stay open.
Last month, the State Board of Education revoked the charter of Torchlight Academy after citing concerns such as violation of federal special-education laws and conflict of interest rules. In response, Torchlight’s board of directors voted to cut its ties with the McQueen family that had run the school and been the source of the conflict of interest concerns.
The state board voted on April 7 to approve Torchlight’s request to become an independently operating charter school. The state board will decide in May on Tochlight’s April 19 appeal of the charter revocation.
“The Charter Agreement executed by the School contemplated an extended ongoing relationship with the EMO (education management organization),” Stephon Bowens, the attorney for Torchlight’s board, wrote in a March 21 letter to the state board.
“However, in light of recent events the Board of Directors for the School have deemed the ongoing relationship with the EMO to no longer be in the best interests of the School.”
Conflict of interest concerns cited
Torchlight is a K-8 charter school in Raleigh serving 600 mostly Black and Hispanic students. It opened in 1999 and is one of North Carolina’s longest-running charter schools.
Charter schools are taxpayer funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules traditional public schools must follow. There are more than 200 open statewide this school year.
Torchlight had been run by Torchlight Academy Schools, a for-profit company owned by Don McQueen. He also served as executive director of the school.
His wife, Cynthia McQueen, was Torchlight’s principal.
Their daughter, Shawntrice Andrews, was accused of altering records of some special-education students. The school has said it was due to “user error” and not malicious.
According to a state Department of Public Instruction investigation, the situation “presented an inherent conflict whereby the McQueens directly benefited from the decisions they made as agents/employees of the school.”
‘Necessary actions to protect the school’
The state board voted March 3 to revoke Torchlight’s charter.
Torchlight’s board of directors held an emergency meeting on March 7 “to take necessary actions to protect the school,” according to the meeting minutes. In addition to voting to appeal the charter revocation, the board voted to:
▪ Terminate the management agreement with Torchlight Academy Schools.
▪ Formally accept Don McQueen’s resignation as the school’s executive director.
▪ Terminate Cynthia McQueen’s employment as principal.
▪ Terminate the employment of Shawntrice Andrews as the school’s exceptional children’s director and multi-tiered system of supports director.
▪ Terminate the employment of Aaron Andrews as a substitute teacher. He’s the husband of Shawntrice Andrews and the son-in-law of the McQueens.
▪ Terminate the contract with Luv Lee Sanitation, which is owned by Aaron Andrews and did cleaning at Torchlight.
“The School is making great strides to address the concerns raised by the SBE (State Board of Education) and approval of this request is one among many changes that will allow the School to move forward in the future,” Bowens wrote.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Charter school fires management company and principal. Will NC now let it stay open?."
