Matthews Charter Academy

My son attended Matthews charter for middle school as part of the first 6th grade class when the school opened. During the three school years our experience was marginal overall. I will say that it was a good “social experience“ for my son because he made a lot of friends and the kids truly cared for each other. The school is made up of children who are driven to School every day and in large part have parents that care about them and their educational experience.

After being in the school for a while, we began to notice that the teacher population was very inexperienced and also became acutely aware that there were many things that the school did not have (busing, a cafeteria, Gym equipment, adequate technology, etc.). What seemed to be issues that surround a school just starting out, were not that at all in reality. Charter schools do not operate the same way as a public school from the standpoint of how they utilize the money. They don’t have as many guidelines around it, so in turn, they operate as a business. They find the cheapest teachers around (inexperienced) and cut corners wherever they can. They get the same amount of money per student that public schools do but much of the money does not actually go into the education of your child. Fundraisers that raise tens of thousands of dollars, or not leveraged properly or of the way that the parent population would like it to be. Meaning, not used in the best interest of the children but rather in ways that the Principal Or corporate organization prefers. In fact, following a large fundraiser the topped $30,000, the parent–teacher organization was dissolved and became a function that the principal ran.

While there were a handful of very good teachers, We often had adversarial interactions with The larger and inexperienced teacher population as we pushed them to ensure that our son received a solid education. There were literally gross oversights and a flavor of ignorance. They clearly leverage this strategy to save money but they do provide a Dean for the middle school and other grade levels. I guess this is their attempt to provide more guidance for the green teacher population. We leveraged the dean on numerous occasions in order to rectify A variety of situations that occurred. Ultimately we learned that the dean was not trustworthy. She would give us lipservice in person or over the phone and very seldom follow through unless a multitude of parents were involved and they worried about legal implications. They provide way too much latitude for the inexperienced teachers and do not truly provide the level of guidance and oversight required for this model. Overall, the dean for middle school ruled with an iron fist and this really affected school morale overall. She does not have the level of sophistication and finesse necessary for the role of Dean. Many of the children acted out because they did not appreciate the empty threats (they thought were real) and the way they were being treated.

I suppose this review makes you wonder where the principal is in all of this? Sadly, she rules from her ivory tower and seldom interacts with the parents or school population. She is out front for some school meetings or events but that is all show. Her availability is presented as so limited that it is extremely difficult to get a meeting. The meeting times are often a week or more out, well past and acceptable timeline for issue resolution. Her primary objective is to keep cost down so her bonus is as large as possible. It seems counterintuitive to have a principal that achieves higher pay through cost savings instead of higher educational standards.

I cannot in good faith recommend Matthews charter Academy to anyone and will leave you with this warning. If you are in the situation that we were and your child is going to have a poor social experience at a neighborhood school, then this may be an option to consider. Outside of that, there is no educational value associated with a child’s attendance at the school.