Yesterday, the New Hanover County Hispanic-Latino Commission (HLC) called an emergency meeting to discuss the coming closure of Mosley's Career Readiness Academy. Though New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) representatives attended, they had little information to share.
On December 1, NHCS announced that Career Readiness Academy would be shutting down within the next year. 62 students are enrolled in the high school program. Of those students, 35 are Hispanic or Latino.
"They were devastated to find out very suddenly that the program for Mosley was closing," HLC member Helen Tarokic said.
A NHCS spokesperson gave some updates during the meeting. The district has planned several events over the next month, including field trips to other high schools and an enrollment fair, to ease students into the transition process.
District representatives also discussed one future possibility for Mosley: a newcomer school, which would be designed to help immigrant students get acquainted with the American education system. The spokesperson explained that staff members from chief academic officer Patrice Faison visited a newcomer school in Guilford County and thought the model would be an asset to the district. Students from grades 3 to 11 could enroll for one year and study English as a second language.
"The idea is to ground them in the American education system," said the spokesperson.
Still, NHCS representatives were not able to answer the majority of the commission's questions. They could not confirm any plans for the newcomer school, saying only that it was one possibility. Many Mosley families have been asking for the rationale behind the sudden closure of the program. The spokesperson was not able to say why the school was closing, nor why it was closing so quickly.
Since the meeting did not have a quorum, the HLC couldn't make any major decisions. However, the commission agreed to compile a list of recommendations of how best to support Mosley's high schoolers as they move to new schools. Those recommendations won't be ready in time for next week's Board of Education meeting, but the commission hopes to complete them by the end of the month.