How One N.C. Charter School On the Brink of Failure Made a Massive Comeback

The state board that oversees charter schools in North Carolina had so many concerns about the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy in 2022 that it considered closing the Bladen County school. 

The academy had received a failing grade the previous school year from the state’s Department of Public Instruction and did not meet the state’s academic growth standards. Only 15% of students were proficient in math, compared to nearly 50% statewide. 

A revolving door of leaders also troubled the N.C. Charter Schools Review Board.  Jason Wray, the school’s third superintendent in nine years, took the helm 11 months earlier. 

“This is the third renewal I’ve seen,” then-board member Cheryl Turner said at aDecember 2022 meeting. “Each time it’s a new leader, and they say it will be different but it’s not. At some point we have to consider totality. I’ve heard this story before.”

Wray pleaded for a chance to turn things around. He outlined goals to improve academic performance and promised to build and strengthen the school’s team of educators. 

His appeal worked. The board agreed to renew Paul Brown Academy’s charter for the next three years—the minimum extension. 

“He changed my vote,” said Bruce Friend, who served on the board at the time and is now its chairman. “He inspired confidence that the buck would stop with him and things would get better.” 

Today, the board is no longer skeptical of the school’s chances for success. Members voted in January to renew the academy’s charter for 10 years, the longest extension possible.

“This was a school that was on life support a few years ago, and then [had a] miraculous turnaround,” board chair Bruce Friend said during the vote. 

Wray has played a crucial role in that success, education officials say. A former principal at East Bladen High School, Wray said he takes an all-hands approach to education. “Your most important resource is not money—it’s your people,” he said. “You treat them right, and then they’ll work their butt off for you.”

The Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy, which opened in 2013 as North Carolina’s only military-themed charter school, currently enrolls 281 students in grades 6-12 who live in eight counties throughout southeastern North Carolina, including Cumberland. More than 65% of students are economically disadvantaged. Many struggled with academic or behavioral issues in traditional public schools.

Like many private military schools, the academy’s curriculum focuses on academics, discipline, athletics, and character. Students regularly practice military drills, and the school offers boys’ basketball, cheerleading, and intramural sports.

Wray, 59, said his own humble upbringing and almost 23 years of experience in the U.S. Army help him understand students’ needs. 

“I know you got a rough situation at home, but that can’t be your crutch,” Wray said he tells his students. “If you want to change your situation, then get your education. Do better. Things will change.”

Climbing Out of Poverty 

Growing up in Portsmouth, Virginia, Wray was the second youngest of seven children. Their single mother worked as a nursing assistant, but it wasn’t always enough to pay the bills and keep food on the table. 

“Education wasn’t pushed in my house, as getting by was the priority,” Wray said.

Wray found stability in sports. He played basketball, baseball, track, and ran cross country in high school, which required that he maintain a C in his classes. When he was 16, a coach hired him to keep score for the city’s softball team. He did homework during slow innings and used the money to feed him and his younger sister. 

Wray said the experience showed him how educators can improve people’s lives and set them up for success. 

“When he did that for me, it affected me from that point forward,” Wray said. “I wanted to help people get better, because you can’t grow up worse than I did. And for me to have those opportunities, I needed to pass them along and help other people.”

Wray hoped to go to college on a basketball scholarship, but recruiters said that at 5 feet10 inches, he was too short. When an Army representative visited his school’s career fair, he signed up right away. 

The bus ride to basic training at Missouri’s Fort Leonard Wood was 26 hours. Once there, he quickly settled into a routine. “Having food and a place to stay was my driving force,” he said. “I know I never made that kind of money before.”

The Army took Wray to South Korea, Texas, St. Louis, Georgia, and finally to Fort Bragg. Along the way, he met his wife, Jacqueline, who also served in the Army and worked as a financial consultant. They have two grown sons.

A month after Wray retired from the military in 2007, he became an ROTC instructor at Goldsboro High School, worked his way up to assistant principal, and continued his own education. He earned three master’s degrees in school counseling, curriculum and instruction, and educational administration, and he got a doctoral degree in education from Aspen University in 2015. 

That year, he became principal of East Bladen High School. 

Robert Taylor, who was superintendent of Bladen County Schools at the time and now serves as superintendent of the Wake County School System, was hesitant to hire Wray. He knew Wray’s wife and worried his choice could be perceived as favoritism. 

But when another candidate’s interview fell flat, Taylor called Wray. “He ended up really being a student-centric person and principal that had high expectations of staff and students. That aligned perfectly with my belief of what I wanted to see in a principal.” 

Wray quickly gained a reputation as a leader willing to get his hands dirty. One summer, a group of teachers gathered outside the school to prune the overgrown crepe myrtles. Wray showed up and worked alongside them. 

“That’s how he’s always been: He gets in it with you,” said Anita Willington, who taught at East Bladen at the time and now at the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy. “He was amazing the way that he led us back. And then the school became unified again. It was a place where people wanted to be.” 

Under Wray’s leadership, East Bladen High School improved its academic performance, meeting the state’s growth standards in 2022 and exceeding them the following year.

“It’s those kinds of performance numbers that show leadership does make a difference,” Taylor said. “And Dr. Wray was that leadership.” 

But Wray had higher aspirations. Willington recalled that he had a name plaque on his desk that said “Superintendent by 2021.” 

“Everyone knew he was too good to stay,” Willington said.

Back to Basics 

The Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy is housed in the Bladen County Training School, which opened in 1928 as a Rosenwald School to educate Black students during segregation. The building, which later served as Bladen Central High School and then Bladen Middle, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Carl Lloyd, a military veteran, founded the academy amid a charter school expansion in North Carolina. The General Assembly passed a bill in 2011 that lifted the 100-school cap that had been in place for a decade. Charter schools receive taxpayer money but are not required to follow some of the state’s rules for traditional public schools. 

Wray said he interviewed for a few other education jobs before landing at the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy. Back then, the school had only 115 students. Its campus in Elizabethtown lacked a fully functioning cafeteria, the copy machine was always out of ink, and students had to share laptops. There weren’t enough calculators to go around, so students sometimes took math exams over a two-day period. 

When he started in 2022, Wray set up a process to buy used Chromebooks so every student would have a device. He said it was crucial to help students recover from learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The school built a new cafeteria and began participating in the National School Lunch Program so students could eat meals for free. Wray said the school is working to replace run-down buses with newer models. 

Unlike some other charter schools, the academy offers bus transportation to and from school. Wray drove a bus for three years, waking up at 4 a.m. to pick up students in Fayetteville. Students on his bus weren’t allowed to talk to each other until they memorized answers to civics questions and the Pledge of Allegiance. 

The school also established additional foundational math classes, and Wray instructed teachers to display learning objectives in their classrooms. 

Wray said he had to rethink discipline at the school, where 38% of students are Black. Black students are often more likely to face harsher disciplinary actions, which can discourage them from going to school, he said. 

Students who violate policies at the academy must carry 50-pound rucksacks during road marches before and after school. If they interrupt a teacher, they might have to do lunges in the hallway. 

The goal, Wray said, is to avoid at-home suspensions. He said time away from school disrupts students, teachers, and the entire classroom. 

“All of those things tie together with being successful—getting them to school on time, buses that are safe, feeding them good meals, building relationships with them, getting them into the classroom and making sure they understand why they’re here,” Wray said. 

More Work to Do

The Wrays had a lot to lose when the N.C. Charter Schools Review Board threatened to close the school in 2022. 

Jacqueline Wray had recently quit her part-time teaching gig at Bladen Community College and joined the school’s staff as the financial and human resources director. (The school’s board had to give the OK for her to be hired.) 

“It hit me hard, like a ton of bricks,” she said. “I was thinking we made a bad move. I was just like, ‘God, you couldn’t have just let me give up my job and give up his job to come here, just for this to get shut down.’”

But the Wrays know there is still work to do. The academy received a C grade from the state Department of Public Instruction last school year—a big jump from failing but with room for improvement. About 35% of students were proficient in math last year, compared to nearly 53% statewide. Twenty percent of students tested as “college ready” on the ACT, far below the statewide rate of about 54%. 

Some students, however, say they are on a better path at the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy. Jamiya Ford, a senior who has attended the school for six years, said she enrolled because her brother and sister went there. She said she was skeptical at first about the school’s strict environment. 

But Ford, who is taking college courses while finishing high school, said she has discovered a love for nursing. She plans to attend N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University in the fall. 

“My goal was to get to the top, and now I’m here,” she said. “This whole school year is going by so fast. I’m a little afraid to get out in the real world, but I feel like I’m going to be OK again with Paul Brown helping me.” 

Taylor, the Wake schools superintendent, asked Wray to speak during a workshop last fall for leaders of the state’s largest district. Wray talked about strategies to boost test scores, particularly at low-performing schools.

Wray said he wants to continue to grow and improve the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy. He eventually plans to retire, but he said he wants to ensure the school is stable. 

“You can never be satisfied with where you are, always trying to make continuous improvement,” Wray said in a recent interview. “Everyone should be trying to get better every day, and that’s the mindset I want to have with school.