Erskine Institute says charter network will add 11 schools, plans rigorous school‑improvement task force

Cameron Runyon with the Charter Institute at Erskine told the subcommittee the institute expects to add 11 schools to its portfolio and to grow enrollment from roughly 27,500 to about 37,500 students next fiscal year, an increase he described as “about a 10,000 addition.” Runyon presented a packet of enrollment projections and said each dot on the packet map represents a student served by the institute.

Runyon said the institute has created a 19‑member school‑improvement task force, composed of internal and external members, to address schools with high need. He described the task force’s work as a “root cause analysis” that examines everything from the car line to the lunch line and produces reports aligning additional resources. “Schools are given through this process 18 months to improve the areas of need,” Runyon said; absent improvement, he said the matter would be referred to the institute’s board for possible revocation.

Runyon told the committee the task force’s interventions have already led to leadership changes and large staffing replacements at some schools: “we have a school that is in the process of replacing 70% of their teaching staff for next year as well,” he said. He added that two schools had received notice of intent to replicate and that the board would consider revocation at its mid‑April meeting for some persistently underperforming schools.

Chairman Bryant commended the work of the task force, noting the charter model must hold schools accountable: “schools should be hard to open and easy to close and hold those folks accountable,” he said. No formal action was taken on the presentation; Runyon answered committee questions before the meeting moved to consideration of provisos.