Agape Achievement Academy breaks ground in Fayetteville

Agape Achievement Academy, Fayetteville’s newest public charter school, broke ground on Saturday for its first classroom building.

The school is being built on 5 acres at 4502 Rosehill Road, next door to Warrenwood Elementary, Operations Director Jesse Brayboy said.

When Agape opens in July, it will be the third charter school in operation in Cumberland County. The other two are the Capitol Encore Academy, in downtown Fayetteville, and the Alpha Academy on Raeford Road in western Fayetteville.

Another charter school, Oma’s Inc., operated from 1998 to 2000 and then shut down, according to state records.

A charter school is a public school funded with tax dollars that operates under a nonprofit organization with independence from the local public schools boards of education. Charter schools are open to all students, just as traditional public schools accept all students.

Founder and Principal Doris Taylor, who is Brayboy’s mother and a former assistant principal of Jack Britt High School, said she is starting Agape in the Rosehill Road area of north Fayetteville because of poor student achievement scores in that part of town.

“This area’s very low-performing,” she said. “It’s below the state level. It’s below the county level.”

The North Carolina School Report Cards website, which assesses schools statewide, gives Warrenwood Elementary a “D” grade based on how well its students performed on end-of-grade math and reading tests.

Agape’s staff will keep an eye out for struggling students to give them support in one-on-one or small group settings, Taylor said.

More details about Agape Achievement Academy, according to Taylor, Brayboy and the school’s website:

• The school will have a horticulture and livestock farm with goats and chickens. This is to teach students about life sciences and about business entrepreneurship, as they raise and sell their farm products.
• Agape will initially be a K-3 school with 168 students. It plans to expand to K-4 with 210 students in its second year, and then cap off at K-5 with 252 students in its third year.
• So far, 98 students are enrolled, and the kindergarten class is filled. Parents can sign up their children for first, second and third grade via Agape’s website.
• The school will require students to wear uniforms.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

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