Grey Stone on the campus of Pfeiffer College is an excellent academically challenging charter. The school is located in the corner of Stanly County where Cabarrus and Davidson come together with Stanly and the Cabbarus section is only a sliver of land separting Rowan from Stanly. GS can pull students from Stanly, Cabbarus, Rowan, Davidson, Meck, Randolph, Montgomery, Anson, and Richmond. That is parts of nine counties. I was told that a student from Moore County attended at one time but do not know the circumstances.
As more charters have been built I think the amount of students from farther away tightens up. I know the argument that these schools are lottery and do not have space to just admit a student but there have been (NOT at GS) instances of students turning up at a charter when it appeared there were no seats or they would have been well below the wait list number.
A charter with seats available and a dynamic basketball or softball or baseball coach could really make a huge difference. I do not have a huge problem with that EXCEPT they are playing 1A sports. Although not a charter, WS Prep was the perfect example of this. They had teams for several years that would have competed for a 4A title but they were a 1A school. I brought this up to Que a few times and she denied the fact that it was an issue. Same with Bishop McG girls teams for nearly a decade. The right charter in the right area could do the same.
Look at the 1A regional finals in numerous sports, they are mostly non traditional schools.
A few years ago the complete starting lineup of a charter baseball team came from one school (3A I believe). The charter school was very strong, the traditional school had been solid was now in the dumper. Surprised people do not see this a problem that can potentially grow larger.
I spouted about this when people were complaining about Charlotte Catholic winning 2A title at will in most sports. I posted here and other places, told coaches, administrators, and anyone that would listen that there was an elephant in the corner that would far surpass the Parochial issue and it's name is Charter Schools. The elephant has outgrown the corner.