Under threat of sanction from the State Board of Education, Charter Day School, Inc. finally released salary information to the Department of Public Instruction. Despite Charter Day stamping the information a "trade secret," DPI said it will release the data to the public Monday evening.
Charter Day School, Inc. has been at the center of a public records controversy for months over its refusal to release salary information of certain employees in its schools. Charter Day operates several schools in southeastern North Carolina. The nonprofit contracts with Roger Bacon Academy, a closely related for-profit company, to run several aspects of the schools.
Charter Day has claimed that the information requested by the Department of Public Instruction and by several media outlets under the N.C. Public Records Act is proprietary of Roger Bacon Academy. The State Board of Education threatened Charter Day with sanctions if it did not turn over the information. On Thursday, Charter Day complied, but marked the information as a “trade secret.” The Department of Public Instruction said it would not treat the information as confidential and will release it at 5 p.m. Monday.
Charter Day School and Roger Bacon Academy were both founded by businessman Baker Mitchell.
Charter Day’s refusal to turn the information over to media outlets sparked a public records lawsuit, which is still pending. The Star-News of Wilmington sued the school in September.
Read coverage from the Star-News here.