Career Readiness Academy at Mosley to remain open

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The Career Readiness Academy at Mosley will not be closing, according to New Hanover County Schools officials.

A spokeswoman with the school district released a statement on Thursday afternoon sharing that the high school program at Mosley will not be closing and the district will not be exploring a potential newcomers school.

“Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust has notified the Board of Education that he will not be moving forward with closing the high school program at Mosley. The Mosley school building contains three programs: a pre-K program, the TPYA program for young adults with special needs, and the Career Readiness high school program. All three will remain open next year. The 2024-25 school year budget is going to require a $10 million decrease due to the ending of ESSER funds,” the statement reads.

In December, the district released a statement that Mosley would not reopen after the 2023-24 school year.

This announcement took many faculty, staff, parents, students, and school board members by surprise. Members of the community came out to voice their concern for the closure at board meetings in December and in January.

Most recently, the board held a public hearing on the closure of the school on January 16. The board was set to make a decision on whether or not to keep the school open at its February 6 meeting.

Following Thursday’s news, families and students took a sigh of relief. John Hladik, a freshman at Mosley, says the school called an assembly on Thursday to let everyone know the doors would remain open.

“All of the students were in assembly and I think the people next door probably thought we were starting a rock concert because we were all so collectively excited,” said John Hladik. “It’s very nice to not have to be like walking down the hallway thinking, ‘man I’m never gonna walk down this hallway again am I?'”

For many families, it was a stressful couple of months trying to figure out what the future would hold for their children’s education. John’s mom, Rachel Hladik, says she’s grateful the community rallied around Mosley to help advocate on behalf of all the families impacted.

“We had applications in in other lotteries for charter schools, private schools,” said Rachel Hladik. “I’ve toured and done all that stuff in the past month, over the holidays and everything so just a big relief not to have another job basically trying to figure out what was going to happen.”

The Career Readiness Academy at Mosley is a public alternative high school. It has 63 students and 15 staff members. For students like Karen Sell’s son, who is a sophomore at Mosley, the small class sizes and close knit school has made the world of difference.

“There are different kinds of students and different kinds of leaners,” said Karen Sell. “Some students may be IB students or academically gifted students. Some students may struggle a little bit more and those students really benefit from having a smaller setting where they’re not going to get lost in an overcrowded classroom and slip through the cracks or and be afraid to ask questions.”

The families say they hope all the exposure Mosley has gotten recently will help other families learn about the school and its resources for students.