St. Cloud’s Stride Academy to Close

ST. CLOUD - A popular St. Cloud charter school is closing. Stride Academy has announced that this will be their last school year.

In November Stride Academy was issued a Notice of Intent of non-renewal by their authorizer "Friends of Education". The notice was based on failure to achieve the academic goals set in the charter contract. In March Stride appealed that decision. However, on Wednesday they received the final determination from Friends of Education that they will not renew the charter contract.

In a written statement released to WJON news, Stride says their last day of operations will be June 22. Stride Academy School Board Chair Sara Fromm says they have a legal responsibility to work with each student's home district to transfer student records.

Additionally, the Board has begun discussions around the possibility of hosting a School Choice Fair so that parents have easier access to information regarding schools in our area. All of our discussions to this point have been around how to make this transition easier for students and staff.

They say they are committed to completing this school year successfully and with as little disruption as possible.  Stride has 680 students enrolled at the school this year.

Meanwhile, parents of students at Stride Academy will need to start planning for the next school year. Charity Hunter of St. Cloud has a daughter in kindergarten at Stride. She says the school has been a good fit for them.

I just always heard really good things about Stride. A lot of my friends had kids there.  My daughter has special needs, so I looked into public schools in St. Cloud and didn't really feel like she was going to get what she needed in the public schools.

Hunter says they're considering making a move to another town, possibly Sauk Rapids.

Fromm says they employ 114 regular staff members.

Stride Academy is a K through 8 charter school that opened in 2005.  They are located just off 33rd Street in south St. Cloud.