Council OKs charter school permit
The City Council on Monday approved a special-use permit for Triad International Studies Academy at 622 E. Lexington Ave., where it plans to open in August offering pre-kindergarten through second-grade classes with a projected enrollment of around 150 students.
Offering a 'language immersion' curriculum with classes in Chinese and Spanish, as well as core subjects, the school is renovating two former church buildings on the property for classroom space.
The school plans to grow to a K-8 enrollment with a maximum capacity of 390 students and eventually add four modular classrooms.
City planners recommended limiting the school's maximum enrollment to 250 students because of concerns about this relatively small 1.5-acre tract being able to handle on-site vehicle queuing during drop-off and pick-up times, as well as other impacts of the development.
The council went against the staff's recommendations in granting the applicant's wish for the 390-enrollment capacity.
The council approved the school's proposal to operate a staggered drop-off and pick-up schedule 45 minutes apart with a maximum of 195 students during each.
The applicant pledged that this would keep traffic from stacking up on E. Lexington Avenue at the school's entrance and exit.
City staff said they were concerned that a staggered schedule would be too difficult for the city to enforce as a condition of the permit.
The council included a requirement that the school submit annual reports to the city showing that they're adhering to the staggered schedule and keeping vehicles from queuing in the road.
The N.C. Department of Transportation, which owns and maintains E. Lexington Avenue, is not requiring the addition of turn lanes into the site, which is in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
The applicant agreed that only emergency access would be permitted from Bridges Drive at the rear of the site.
The council approval was on a vote of 8-1, with Councilwoman Amanda Cook opposed, saying she preferred to adhere to the staff's recommendation for the smaller enrollment capacity.
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For one thing, I was shocked that she had moved back to Watertown. Madeline, her older sister, and I had performed in the same high school plays. In fact, I had a major crush on her sister. That was a major part of the 'good reality' that I so desperately tried to protect from the 'bad.' And later, Madeline had tried to pursue a career in acting. She attended theater schools and auditioned for movie and television roles. I imagined her in New York or Los Angeles maybe. But yet here she was, married and raising a family in Watertown. But until I received her dinner invite, I didn't know exactly where. As it turned out, Madeline lives right next door to Mom and Susan. Could it be that Madeline and her family were the same neighbors my sister fixated on? The people she called the cops on? During the dinner, I tried to read Madeline and her husband, whom I'll call Greg, for some clues about whether she knew that my mom and sister lived next door. But they gave no indication of that. I started to think it wasn't them. I decided to find out. 'Hey, this is pretty weird,' I said. 'But did you know you live next door to my mom and sister?' Greg's face changed color. Madeline stopped eating. Silence. OMG. They were the neighbors. No, they didn't know it was my family. And yes, my sister called the cops on them. Three times. She accused them of racism. The cops had taken Susan's complaints seriously. Each time the police arrived they brought some kind of crisis interventionist/social worker to teach Madeline and Greg how not to be racist. 'I am not racist!' Madeline insisted to me. No matter how hard Madeline and Greg tried to convince Susan, she heard something different. 'First of all, I am so sorry," I said, mortified. 'Secondly, it's better that you do not say anything to her. No matter your intentions. She is just very sick.' 'I know,' Madeline said. 'At first, we were very upset. But then I started to read the social media posts of this guy I knew, who wrote on Facebook about mental illness and his family. He taught me compassion toward people who were struggling like this.' Who was this guy? 'You,' Madeline said. The world grew exponentially smaller. Let me get this straight: Madeline, an acquaintance with whom I had not spoken in 30 years, read my social media posts about mental health, which allowed her to better understand the actions of her ill neighbor, who turned out to be my sister . So in a sense, I was paying it forward to myself when I wrote those posts. To this day, I wrestle with what happened. I don't believe in coincidences. Everything has a reason. What was I supposed to take from all of this? I concluded that I had been mistaken to draw a distinction between 'good' and 'bad' reality. There is just reality. We view our lives holistically if we want to heal. We have to confront past trauma and reconcile it with our present and future. The bad stuff in my life occurred simultaneously with the good stuff. It's true that my sister chased me with scissors. It's equally true that I happily performed plays with Madeline and her sister. And somehow the universe saw fit to remind us that life can be filled with mysterious little coincidences that seem unrelated but ultimately bind us together. The question is whether you want to see the big picture.
