Ascent Classical Academy-Fort Mill

I had to pull my children from this school because they have high teacher turnover, Lack curriculum to teach lessons and the CMO is the poorest management company that lacks transperancy and lies to the parents. There is no security in place and the school is already in deep debt due to half of the students being pulled out. Due a deep search on what happened at the Denver CO schools before you even consider going to this school. SC Board of Education has this school on probation for not meeting several SC laws.

Very poor management, little to no meaningful oversight by the board, high turnover of staff and teachers created unstable learning environment for students. Interim headmaster should not be around anyone's children. There are some great teachers but not worth sending your kids here. Far more cons than pros. School had so much potential but the executive director ruined it.

My wife and I had two children attending the Fort Mill campus of ACA in the 2025/6 school year, and we needed to withdraw our daughters for their own protection. We did not want to leave, and are now changing the way we live our lives in order to homeschool our children.
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We became interested in this school because we heard, falsely, that they were associated with the Hillsdale curriculum, but Derec Shuler, the current ACA CMO director, abandoned that prior to coming to SC.
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We were persuaded to enroll, along with many other parents, after meeting Headmaster Mullins, who had become proficient at rebuilding faith in the school despite a turbulent first year, predicated on his own history of success.
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The school also benefited from parents being initially unaware of this happening 4 previous times over the past 7 years in Colorado.
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However, Headmaster Mullins would not get a chance to succeed due to Derec learning from his mistakes in CO, and consequently, becoming more proficient at amplifying his vices.
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The parents quickly learned about the CO situation wherein, prior to firing 2 headmasters in 2 years at our campus (including Mullins), the first CO ACA campus went through 6 headmasters in 7 years and for the last 2 years, there has been an almost 100 staff turnover rate for each year at the SC campus.
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I encourage any parent considering this school to research Derec's turbulent history in CO as well as what has happened at the Fort Mill campus.
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The CO board eventually turned on him and voted out his CMO. On his way out, Shuler, per the Colorado Sun, laid off 300 staff and faculty. When they finally forced him out (and hired everyone back), he sued them and lost.
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In the counterclaims, the CMO was accused of:
Failing to provide consistent and competent employees due to their poor management, causing excessive turnover, employee unrest, and low morale.
Failing to cooperate with the transition and actively hindering it by refusing to follow board directives.
Refusing to transfer funds and to provide information and/or access to systems that the CMO no longer had any right or need to possess.
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Derec has been removed from CO, shut down in NC, shut down in Irmo (SC), and just capitulated in Columbia. The Fort Mill campus is the only foothold he has left, and enrollment went down from about 260 to about 160 by midyear.
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I started to write about their problem with violence, but reached the limit for the length of a review.