NC's top charter school overseer departs DPI for charter school job

North Carolina’s chief overseer of charter schools is leaving the state Department of Public Instruction to go work for a national charter school organization.

Dave Machado will be the North Carolina State Director of Charter Schools USA.

Charter Schools USA is a for-profit company is with nine schools in North Carolina and plans to expand.

“During my discussions with CSUSA, it became apparent that this is an excellent opportunity for me to use my experience closer to the school level,” Machado wrote in the state’s Office of Charter Schools newsletter, sent out Tuesday afternoon.

Machado first became director of the state’s Office of Charter Schools in 2016 and was a charter school administrator prior to that. He earned $129,246 annually.

Ashley Baquero, a charter school consultant at DPI, is now the interim director of the Office of Charter Schools, appointed by Superintendent Catherine Truitt.

The number of charter schools in the state has more than doubled in the past decade to more than 200, though Office of Charter School staff has not. The State Board of Education has asked lawmakers for more staff to help oversee schools and members have repeatedly thanked Machado and his staff for working in understaffed conditions.