Monroe offered to expedite document for closed charter school; Union County district says affected students welcome to transfer

MONROE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The City of Monroe and local school district are addressing the closure of a charter school, which came after a visit from the city’s Fire Marshal Office.

Apprentice Academy abruptly surrendered its charter and closed the school this past weekend. In a posting on the school’s website and in emails with Queen City News, school leadership cited the lack of a proper certificate of occupancy, along with low enrollment and what was termed a “financial burden” for the ultimate closure.

The closure came unexpectedly for many parents, who have been scrambling for other options for educating their children just a week after school returned from the summer.

In a statement Tuesday, a city spokesperson confirmed the fire marshal’s visit to the school along Old Charlotte Highway on Aug. 29, where they informed the school that their Certificate of Occupancy was not valid.

“The Fire Marshal did not shut down the school and even offered to expedite the CO (Certificate of Occupancy) process in the interest of keeping the school open,” the statement said.

The school was initially at the campus for several months in 2019, but vacated to a more permanent location off Weddington Road in Matthews shortly after.

“Any time a business or organization vacates a property, their CO is no longer valid for that property. The organization must obtain a new CO when returning to the property, even though it’s the same business or organization at the same property. Apprentice Academy returned to the Old Charlotte Hwy property earlier this year and did not obtain a new CO,” the city reiterated in their statement.

The school returned to the Old Charlotte Highway location for the 2024-25 school year. Classes had only been in session for a few days when classes were called off that Friday.

School leadership said, upon discussion with those involved, that they believed they did not need a new Certificate of Occupancy and believed the one from 2019 was still valid.

The school held an emergency board meeting Saturday, where they voted to surrender the school’s charter and shut down the school.

While the closure occurred suddenly, Union County Public Schools said Tuesday the district is willing to take in those now-former Apprentice Academy students that are within the county.

“It can be fairly quickly,” said Tahira Stalberte with Union County Public Schools, when asked about the process to get students transferred in emergency situations. “With enrollment documents, immunization records, everything that they needed to enroll their students in Apprentice, they would have those same documents for us.”

Stalberte noted that they have already been fielding calls from Apprentice parents about transferring. She also noted they are still enrolling students into the second week of the school year, in general, for others just moving into or otherwise enrolling in the district.

Apprentice Academy leaders said they will be offering times Wednesday and Thursday for students and parents to drop off Chromebook laptops and pick up any necessary items and refunds of some school fees.

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