What is FASTAR®?

A month before the most famous auto race in America, the Indianapolis 500, CCS-America students will compete in a race of their own, a voluntary, extracurricular academic tournament known as FASTAR® (Fluent Academic Skills Tournament in Arithmetic and Reading). The goal of FASTAR® is to encourage students to improve their basic skills through practice in an exciting and rewarding tournament modeled after automobile racing. Research shows that practicing to the point of fluency – able to give fast, smooth, and nearly automatic responses – has several benefits: skills are retained longer, students are able to perform the skills for longer periods of time before tiring, comprehension may be improved, mastery of basic skills make it easier to succeed at more-complex tasks, and homework time may decrease.

FASTAR® racers will participate in tune-up sessions in advance and are encouraged to practice at home. Race days occur in April. The trophy winners from each campus will then meet at the Race of Champions on April 24th where the school with the most speed and accuracy will take home the overall trophy. Sign your student up by this Friday, February 23rd to participate!

Check out last year’s pictures below.

CCS-Leland

CCS-Southport

CCS-Whiteville

CCS-Wilmington

Beta Clubs Travel to State Convention

Members of the CCS-Leland and CCS-Whiteville Beta Clubs traveled to Greensboro last month to participate in the North Carolina’s 32nd annual Junior Beta Convention.

The students competed with distinction in individual and team events in the Arts and Academics that relate to classes at CCS-America. Congratulations to all for impressive performances! We are so proud of how they represented CCS-America.

The mission of the Beta Club is to promote academic achievement, character, service, and leadership. Middle school students interested in these values are welcome to join the Beta Club in the 2024-2025 school year!

Event Winners

Learn more about Beta Club here

State Archery Tournament 

Classical Charter Schools of America’s three middle school teams from Leland, Southport, and Whiteville participated in the National Archery Schools Program’s (NASP) North Carolina State Tournament in Winston-Salem this past weekend.

Our teams have been involved in NASP for fourteen years and have garnered nine State Championships, two second-place trophies, and numerous individual awards with two students placing in the top 10 in the middle school boy’s division this year – Colton Riley (Leland, 8th grade) ranked 6th in the State, and Ethan Stanley (Leland, 7th grade) placed 7th. All our team members should be commended for their hard work because the growth and popularity of the sport is making it increasingly more competitive each year.  

“Our middle school students have the opportunity to participate in our archery elective classes, and students are then selected for the competition archery teams,” explained Leland Head Coach LaFave. “We are thankful to all our coaches and administrators for supporting our student-athletes, and we are excited to continue to grow the archery programs on all our middle school campuses,” he added. 

CCS-Leland

CCS-Southport

CCS-Whiteville

Celebrating Frederick Douglass

“Once you learn to read, you are forever free.” -Frederick Douglass

Born into slavery in February 1818, it was illegal for Frederick Douglass to be taught how to read and write, but the wife of his master taught him the alphabet and how to read the Bible. After he learned, Douglass read everything he could and went on to become a champion of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.

Each year, CCS-Wilmington, previously named after Frederick Douglass, celebrates his birthday and contribution to our country. Teachers read books about Douglass to students and they even get a special visit from Mr. Douglass himself!

Pictures

Learn more about Fredrick Douglass

2024 Handwriting Contest Winners

National Handwriting Day is celebrated each year on January 23rd, the birthday of John Hancock. Hancock is best known for being the first and most prominent signatory to the Declaration of Independence. Because of this, a person’s signature is often referred to as his or her “John Hancock.”

As handwriting is an important aspect of CCS-America’s curriculum, the annual Handwriting Competition is held each year on National Handwriting Day. Students in all grades are given a phrase to copy and a prompt to answer in their neatest handwriting. Grades 4-8 are required to write in cursive. Entries are then judged on spacing, size, shape, slant, the use of proper capitalization, and content. First-place winners and honorable mentions receive cash prizes and classrooms that display overall handwriting excellence receive door medallions.

Check out the winners and honorable mentions at the links below! Great job to all CCS-America students for their hard work!

CCS-Leland

CCS-Southport

CCS-Whiteville

CCS-Wilmington

Support CCS-Wilmington! 

CCS-Wilmington is partnering with Office Depot as their Title I School for the 2024 School Supply Drive!

After a successful School Supply Drive from April to December 2023, we are grateful to have support from Wilmington’s Office Depot again. During those nine months, Office Depot raised over $10,000 and provided students with book bags full of supplies.

Visit Office Depot at 3727 Oleander Drive in Wilmington and donate at the end of your purchase to support CCS-Wilmington students! Donations will go to CCS-Wilmington through December 2024.

Thank you Office Depot for your continuing support!

More Information

Pictures

Students of the Month

CCS-America students are recognized monthly for displaying a specific character trait from our School Pledge that they not only say, but also practice in their daily lives.

January’s character trait was Honesty. Students who show honesty are truthful in what they say and how they conduct their everyday lives. Honesty is seen in the School Pledge as “I Pledge to be truthful in all my works.” Students apply these words by telling the truth, playing by the rules, and not exaggerating facts.

Congratulations to all of these students who demonstrated exemplary honesty. Check them out on the links below!

CCS-Leland

CCS-Southport

CCS-Whiteville

CCS-Wilmington

Dean Lopez

Classical Charter Schools of Leland Receives National Award for the CLT8

Classical Charter Schools of Leland has earned its ranking in the Classic Learning Test’s (CLT) 2022-2023 CLT8 School Rankings as one of the top twenty schools in the entire country.

The CLT8 diagnostic test is given each year to middle-school students at hundreds of schools nationally to evaluate their reading, grammar, and mathematical skills. The award recognizes CCS-Leland’s student body for collectively receiving the highest score on the exam of any charter school during the 2022-2023 academic year.

“We’re extremely proud of our students and staff,” said Headmaster Laurie Benton, who noted that CCS-Leland was the only tuition-free, open-to-all charter school on the list of top performers. CCS-Leland is also a Title I school, with a large diverse enrollment of low-income and disadvantaged students. All of the other schools in the top twenty, she noted, are “private schools charging tuition.”

The CLT8, designed for 7th and 8th graders, is a cumulative diagnostic assessment offered by the Annapolis, MD based Classic Learning Test, providing a comprehensive measure of achievement and aptitude. Much of the content is drawn from classic literature and historical tests, which are central to the curriculum at CCS-Leland and the other Classical Charter Schools of America campuses.

Since its inception in 2016, Classic Learning Test has offered assessments steeped in more intellectually rich and rigorous content than other standardized tests. CLT’s suite of assessments now serves grades 3-12.

“Out of the hundreds of schools that take the CLT8 every year,” CCS-Leland’s ranking is “a remarkable achievement,” CLT officials said.

Dean of Classical Humanities Jessica Lopez adds, “The nationally high ranking that our 8th grade students achieved on the CLT8 is a testament to our 25 years of curriculum development. The high results are also a reflection of the superior training and standards provided by the Roger Bacon Academy to its educators. I offer my gratitude and accolades to our students and staff for this well-deserved outcome of our first time participating in the CLT8.”  

What is the CLT8?

The CCS-America Spelling Bee

The first annual CCS-America Spelling Bee kicked off in October, with students at each campus competing in the first of two mock Spelling Bees to narrow the field down to just five students in grades 1-8. These finalists from each campus competed last Friday, January 19th, at CCS-Leland to crown the overall winner in each grade. 

The journey to the final Spelling Bee showcased the academic talents of the participating students and celebrated their achievements in spelling. Congratulations to the winners!

1st grade: Cebastian Valdez from CCS-Whiteville

2nd grade: Brynlee Gooden from CCS-Whiteville

3rd grade: Benjamin Gomez from CCS-Southport

4th grade: Emma Evans from CCS-Southport

5th grade: Wyatt Midgett from CCS-Leland

6th grade: Benjamin Antosiak from CCS-Leland

7th grade: Jackson Boren from CCS-Whiteville

8th grade: Callum Brown from CCS-Southport

Pictures

Photo by Matt Born, StarNews

CCS-Wilmington Marches in the MLK Day Parade

Classical Charter Schools of Wilmington joined the Wilmington community on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the annual downtown Parade.

This year marked 10 years of CCS-Wilmington’s participation in the event to honor Dr. King. This parade serves as an opportunity to bring people together and pay tribute to the positive changes he brought to our country.

Dr. King was due to visit Wilmington on April 4, 1968, the day he was killed. He had postponed his trip to assist striking sanitation workers in Memphis, where he met his untimely death.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Parade

Celebrating Your Choice 

National School Choice Week, which is being observed this year from Jan. 21-27, is here! As we celebrate your choice in your student’s education, here are some facts on the charter school movement:

 The charter school movement started in 1992 when Minnesota parents revolted against the state’s failing government-run schools. The legislature allowed privately operated groups to establish schools under a charter granted by the state.

 North Carolina passed its charter school law four years later in 1996.

 In 2024, 46 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam have charter school laws.

 There are over 3.7 million charter students in 7,996 charter schools nationwide.

 In North Carolina, 131,624 students are enrolled in 206 charter schools.

Since opening in 2000 with 53 students in a single location, CCS-America now serves over 2,000 students in four schools. Thank you for choosing CCS-America to educate your students and for being part of the movement!

More Charter Schools Data

LELAND, North Carolina –The Charter Day School network of charter schools, anticipating further growth and heightened enrollment demands, is adopting a new name reflecting the schools’ unique classical curriculum and emphasis on civic virtue: Classical Charter Schools of America. The new names will be phased-in for the network and each of its schools beginning immediately.

Charter Day School, Inc. Board Chairman Robert Spencer said the name change was prompted by “the need to clarify what makes our schools different and better” and a desire to “bring unity and uniformity to our family of schools” at a time when charter school popularity has been rapidly accelerating.

Headquartered in Leland, a Wilmington neighbor, the Charter Day School, Inc. network began 20 years ago with a single charter school in grades K-5. Today, the network includes four schools—in Leland, Southport, Whiteville and Wilmington—enrolling more than 2,500 students. Spencer said Classical Charter Schools of America will likely apply for a fifth area school in the next 18-24 months and is planning additional schools elsewhere in the state “and even in other states.”

In North Carolina, charter schools became law on June 22, 1996 as independently controlled, tuition-free schools open to the public.  Charter school boards are accountable to the state for maintaining high academic performance and financial stability.

Spencer said the network’s first school, Charter Day School, opened in 2000 in Leland. Just five years later the State Board of Education recognized its academic success, designating Charter Day School one of the Top-25 elementary schools out of 1,800 in North Carolina.

As a result of this success, a second school was established in 2007: Columbus Charter School in Whiteville. A third school was added in 2013—Douglass Academy in downtown Wilmington—and a fourth in 2014, South Brunswick Charter School in Southport. All four schools will be renamed. Columbus Charter School, for example, is becoming Classical Charter Schools of Whiteville and Douglass Academy is becoming Classical Charter Schools of Wilmington.  All schools will continue to be under the central control of Charter Day School, Inc. which is becoming Classical Charter Schools of America.

“While all of these schools share the same management team and use the same time-tested, field-proven classical curricula and instructional methods, their legacy names didn’t reflect that fact,” Spencer said, “the new names do.”  Spencer also noted that uniforms and other materials bearing the old names would be grandfathered.

Spencer said that renaming the network and its schools is one of several steps the Board is taking. The second step, which is ongoing, will be to evaluate future locations for possible expansion. “We have a terrific educational model as our wait lists attest; we want to share this model,” he said.

The Board also is looking at ways to “further differentiate the way our schools teach citizenship and life lessons to impressionable young students as distinct from the highly politicized ways many traditional public schools have been adopting,” Spencer said. “We teach students to work hard, do their best, respect their teachers and each other and to love their country; the contrast with what’s going on in many traditional public schools couldn’t be greater, and many parents are choosing our educational model.” 

Schools in the Classical Charter Schools of America network are managed by The Roger Bacon Academy charter school management firm, which provides the schools’ curriculum, instructional, and operational services—including professional development for teaching staff, accounting, human resources, recruiting, IT, maintenance, and security.

For virtual tours of the network and its schools visit www.CCSAM.net and select the location of interest for enrollment and employment opportunities, or contact The Roger Bacon Academy, 3610 Thaddeus Lott Lane, Leland, NC 28451. Phone: (910) 655-3600.

Whiteville, NC – Kindergarten and eighth grade students received diplomas and accolades in front of a glowing crowd of family and friends. The occasion capped off a year of hard work and inspired persistence in the face of adversity.

Steve Smith, Headmaster of Columbus Charter School, commented, “We are incredibly proud of our amazing students! Their resilience, optimism, and dedication are an inspiration to us all. Congratulations!” Columbus Charter School is one of four charter schools managed by The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc. founded in 1999 by education pioneer Baker Mitchell.

The other schools include Charter Day School in Leland, 1Douglass Academy in Wilmington, and South Brunswick Charter School in Southport with a combined enrollment of over 2,100 students in K-8. All four are tuition-free, charter schools that welcome all students, regardless of income, ability, or address. To learn more or enroll online, please visit EnrollRBA.com

Over 30 students at Columbus Charter School received awards for their exemplary handwriting as part of a competition in honor of National Handwriting Day. Six students received a $5 first-place award, and twenty-six students received an honorable mention $1 prize. In addition, numerous classes and grades performed so well overall they received a collective award and ice-cream party. The handwriting competition occurred across all four campuses in The Roger Bacon Academy family of charter schools – Charter Day School in Leland, Columbus Charter School in Whiteville, Douglass Academy in Wilmington, and South Brunswick Charter School in Southport.

Kolton Lovett, a third-grade winner, exclaimed, “Handwriting is important for the people reading and understanding your work! It has been cool winning two years in a row. Some people work very hard to have nice handwriting, and I think having nice handwriting will help me be better at cursive!” Kolton’s class also received an award and ice-cream party for their excellent handwriting overall.

“Handwriting is important because when I get into college, I will do a lot of essays and writing”, said fifth-grade winner Alexia Villa. She explained, “I want to write neatly so my family, friends, and teachers can understand my writing!” Her class also received an ice-cream party and award for their astounding work.

“Handwriting is important because people need to be able to understand what you are saying”, declared fifth-grade honorable mention winner Zachary Dryden. He added, “I take pride in my work!”

Jessica Lopez, Dean of English, Latin, and History at The Roger Bacon Academy, commented, “Penmanship is the art of writing by hand and distinguishes our students from their peers at other schools.  Not only do we teach cursive, we also stress the importance of penmanship beginning in kindergarten.  This teaches our students to take pride in their work and to do their best in all endeavors, an important life lesson.  Our National Handwriting Day competition showcases our students’ handwriting and allows them the opportunity to be rewarded for their efforts.  We are very happy that in a year of many cancellations, we were able to provide this rewarding and fun competition for our students.”

Columbus Charter School is one of four charter schools managed by The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc. founded in 1999 by education pioneer Baker Mitchell. The other schools include Charter Day School in Leland, 1Douglass Academy in Wilmington, and South Brunswick Charter School in Southport with a combined enrollment of over 2,100 students in K-8. All four are tuition-free, charter schools that welcome all students, regardless of income, ability, or address. To learn more or enroll online, please visit EnrollRBA.com