FAITH — A vision that began two years ago for a community that lost its elementary school has finally come to fruition.

Faith Academy Charter School faculty and staff welcomed their 780 students to the new facility on Monday.

“This is a historic moment for the Town of Faith,” Mayor Randall Barger said. “It’s been since 1927 that a new school was opened up here.”

While Faith Academy does not solely serve students from the Faith community, its previous facility was the former Faith Elementary School that did.

“From the shock of having a school too close to this school now being built, a lot of people have put in a lot of work, and it’s just amazing to come by and see this beautiful school up on a hill,” Barger said.

The former Faith Elementary School, which several Faith Academy officials described as a community pillar, closed its door officially in June of 2021.

Before the school’s closing, several parents from Faith gathered to discuss options, and ultimately, it was decided to pursue a charter school to retain a Faith-based school option. Faith Academy opened that same school year in the former Faith Elementary building.

While Faith Academy presented the chance to keep a school in Faith, by being a charter school, it meant that it would not serve a traditional school district.

Faith Academy Board of Directors Chairman George Wilhelm said, “We wanted a community school, but sadly, there are people in this community that could not get their children into this school because the state of N.C. says a charter school has to be open to all residents of N.C. and that you have to do it on a lottery system and a weighted lottery system, which means a socioeconomic group, we have to have a certain amount of those.”

Still, by having a school in Faith, the mayor believes it retained that sense of community that made Faith Elementary so special.

“The community supports the school,” Barger said. “We have (nonprofit groups) that do a lot for the schools to help out and, of course, the volunteers this morning. Just looking around and seeing all the people in the community giving their time to come out and help. It’s a whole army of people who are out there.”

The mayor has been following the construction process throughout.

“I have been taking pictures of it since they started grading the land,” Barger said. “As it progressed, I have been here every week, and now to finally see the end, and with kids in the school is what it’s all about. They are excited, and so are we.”

Alison Moore is the K-6th grade principal and lead administrator. On Monday, she said the transition to the new facility had gone pretty well, especially given the uptick in enrollment (30 percent).

That increase was made possible by the expansion and also brought on by the school’s adoption of 9th-grade students.

“We are going to gain 9th grade, and we also added at the other grade levels as well,” Moore said. “We shot for that 30 percent growth, and we made it.”

The new building provides more room for the students and enhances educational accommodations.

“One of the benefits are the rooms for exploratories,” Moore said. “There is a room for our theater students. Our theater teacher used to work in the old auditorium. Now, she has her own classroom.

“We also have a band and music room and an art room on the first floor for our K-5 students and an art room upstairs as well as a new science classroom so the teachers can take a chance and put their time in at that science classroom.”

Moore’s educational journey began in Rowan-Salisbury Schools before an administrative role took her to Cabarrus County. She retired from the state in January. Like Moore, many of the faculty at Faith Academy are retired educators. Moore said that is for a couple of reasons.

“One of the big pulls for teachers in N.C. is that after 30 years, you can retire and start pulling a retirement check,” Moore said. “I started at 21 years old, so after 30 years, I was only 51. Well, most people don’t stop working at 51 years old. You retire and then realize you really miss it.

“With charter schools, you have the chance to go to the charter school realm plus pull your retirement check. That is one of the things about Faith Charter is that we do not give into the state retirement system, so people are able to come out of retirement and still draw two checks.”

Faith Academy is located at 420 North Main Street.