Local education group to shut down, citing cash flow problems

In a statement Thursday, a spokeswoman said the organization will close Friday due to "financial issues focused on cash flow."

"NC New Schools had grown rapidly in recent years," communications director Kimberly Hofman-McEnaney wrote. "(The) business model of negotiating fees for services with schools, subsidized by donations and grants, ultimately proved to be unsustainable."

NC New Schools is based in Research Triangle Park and has received millions of dollars in donations and federal grants since it began in 2003, including nearly $26 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a $20 million grant in 2014 and a $15 million grant in 2011 from the U.S. Department of Education.

WRAL News contacted the federal government to find out the status of those grants but has not heard back.

Capitol Broadcasting, WRAL's parent company, is listed as a donor on the group's website.

NC New Schools has worked with schools across the country in the creation and support of early college high schools, a hybrid model that blends high school and the first two years of college. The group embeds staff members in the schools to help train and coach teachers and principals.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has worked with the organization for more than a decade, according to Deputy State Superintendent Rebecca Garland. She said the department heard about the closing Thursday morning.

"We really have not had a chance to assess the impact yet," Garland said. "We actually have employees from DPI that are housed there (at NC New Schools). We have four positions that have been there since the beginning of the early college movement."

Those four employees will keep their jobs, she said, but will be relocated to DPI's headquarters in downtown Raleigh.

Garland said NC New Schools has done "outstanding work in terms of changing classroom practice and helping to improve student outcomes in early colleges."