By Brooke Sutherland
bsutherland@charlotteobserver.com

Johnson C. Smith University plans to add a private high school to its campus, part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the Beatties Ford Road corridor and play an earlier role in the lives of schoolchildren.

University President Ron Carter says JCSU will partner with Regent Schools of the Carolinas, a private Christian school system.

Carter announced the project after a recent presentation by the Urban Land Institute, a group of national real estate experts who visited Charlotte last week to study Beatties Ford.

Details are still being hammered out, but Carter said he felt the high school would be a meaningful addition.

"There is always a need to have options in educating our young people," he said.

JCSU is also interested in expanding its relationship with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Carter said.

"The point is, as an urban university, we are reaching out to various school systems and saying, 'We want to participate,'" he said.

The JCSU Saturday Academy currently offers tutoring and mentors for students in grades 3-5, said Sherrill Hampton, special assistant to Carter and director of the JCSU Center for Applied Leadership and Community Development.

JCSU will continue to work with schools in its academy, but it also hopes to develop programs with West Charlotte High, Williams Middle and the four elementary schools that feed into the two, Hampton said.

Details are still preliminary, but future meetings will outline some kind of partnership for the coming school year, said Ronald Dixon, principal of Williams Middle.

Partnerships between secondary schools and universities are becoming more common. Around North Carolina, several school districts have created high schools on college campuses, allowing students to take tuition-free college classes while earning their high school diplomas.

CMS' Cato Middle College High, on a campus of Central Piedmont Community College, is among the state's highest-performing high schools.

UNC Charlotte is in talks to place a CMS K-8 school on its campus, said Dr. Melba Spooner, associate dean in the College of Education.

CMS head planner Mike Raible said the two staffs are looking for a site, but the plans remain long-range.

"In terms of building a school, we have a backlog of over $300 million of projects that have been approved by voters but have yet to have bonds issued on them," he said.

Placing a high school on a university campus benefits both institutions, said Bobby Stewart, chief operating officer for Pfeiffer University, home to Gray Stone Day School, a public charter high school.

Not only do the high schools get access to university facilities, but the universities can also offer their education students field work nearby, Stewart said.

"For us, it really created an education destination ... and continued to push the goal of academic excellence," he said.

At JCSU, the new high school and university would combine to form a sort of "learning village," said the Rev. Marty McCarthy, president of Regent.

McCarthy said the high school will likely start out small, but he hopes over time that it will grow to around 400-500 students.

Carter and McCarthy said the new school would open in fall 2012 at the earliest.
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Ann Doss Helms contributed.

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