Crosscreek Charter School

I totally disagree with the negative reviews above. Crosscreek Charter School has a great faculty/staff, an active parent group (CAPT), and a Board of Directors made up of people who really care. My children have loved going to school there. As with any school, you’re gonna have your “bad apples” and in my experience, it’s the students of the parents who leave the negative reviews, and leave or who’s students are suspended/expelled. Do your due diligence, go take a tour of the school, meet the staff, they are very friendly and caring. They have a great culture for your child to learn and grow in. 5 stars for me!

This is by far the worst school to place your child/children in! The review above breaks it down almost 100. Research and do your homework if considering placing a child here.

My goal in writing this review is to help give parents as honest and unbiased feedback as possible about my experience(s) at Cross Creek Charter School the two years my children attended.

I have been a teacher in the public education system for 10+ years. After moving from Charlotte to Louisburg my husband and I enrolled our children at Cross Creek Charter School while I stayed home with our youngest. After having talked with families in the area and read reviews online this seemed to be a wonderful option for our children.

Our first visit to the school was sadly underwhelming and made me immediately question our decision. The whole school is just a community of older trailers, many of which were worn and falling apart. There appeared to be little to no security in place as the "school" is located on an open lot sandwiched between a public road and woods with no protective fencing. Anyone could walk onto campus. We walked into two unlocked classrooms full of children on our way to the "office".

There is no gym, auditorium, or lunch room. If your child attends Cross Creek Charter school you can expect them to spend most, if not all of their school day in the same classroom with very few windows. The "playground" appears to be a small dirt field off the side of the trailers with a couple of picnic tables and some monkey bars on the sides.

The school is not diverse so you can be assured your child will not have a real world cultural perspective if/when he/she moves on to high school/college. The school enrollment is very small which would be a positive except there is only one class per grade level. Why is this a negative? Unfortunately, this is not a "premier" school system nor a "premier" school. That means there will be a limited number of highly qualified professions drawn to this area and this school. In conjunction, if you have ever had the unfortunate experience of your child being bullied or a target among their peers you can kiss the option for a "fresh" start next year goodbye as your child can expect to be tormented year after year going from grade level to grade level with the same group of classmates just different teachers. It also means your child will be less likely adapted with strong coping/social skills.

On the positive, this school does have a small town community feel. The teachers are very nice when you meet them. And it seems like a warm family feel to the faculty and staff. However, just like most small towns you can also expect a level of unprofessional gossip when situations arise in the school. There were numerous times my daughter came home discussing situations she "overheard" her teacher talking about that had nothing to do with her class....many of which were highly inappropriate for a child her age to hear about and involving other students or faculty at the school. My older son often got first hand information from his teacher talking about his friends or their parents. My experience as a teacher is that gossip is just not acceptable nor professional.

If your child attends this school, be prepared to have to ask a lot of questions about logistics and your child's education. I was rarely informed about what was happening at the school with the exception of fundraising events. This is a consistent problem from the head (the principal) all the way to the body (the faculty). If my children were frustrated with new strategies or objectives I felt like I had to jump through hoops just to get help or information. As an educator I am very familiar with this system.....but every attempt of mine to communicate was responded to with apathy or disdain. I would eventually get a response. However, the response was often too late to be of use.

My husband and I unofficially decided to pull our children out of Cross Creek Charter School when my daughter was called to the office, questioned by the principal without my knowledge or consent. I had to contact the principal to find out what had transpired. To my mortification the principal responded with the same disdainful attitude I had become accustom to.....attitude does indeed reflect leadership. (Rest assured my son knew everything about the situation despite his being three grades above and in a separate trailer/classroom).

My husband and I wanted to love this school. It would have been much more convenient if we had. Despite all the negatives we still kept our children there for two years hoping we were wrong. Unfortunately, we were not. We had to make a major decision when it came time to enroll our youngest daughter for kindergarten. My husband transferred his job and we moved to the Raleigh area. This was one of the best decisions we have made for our children.