Our Application Process

 

Thank you for your interest in Mountain Island Charter School!  Our Lottery is open for applications for the 2023-2024 school year from November 1, 2022 through January 31, 2023.

Please click HERE to submit your application to be placed in our 2023-2024 lottery. The lottery will be held on Wednesday, February 8 at 4:00 pm in our high school (b) gym. 

Our process:

  • Applications for the lottery are available online from November 1st to January 31st each year. Paper applications are available at the front office of both the elementary (D Building) and the middle/high school (C Building). Applications received after January 31st go to the wait list. Admissions priorities will apply.
  • You must re-apply each year. Lottery numbers do not carry over from year to year.
  • The lottery will be held on the second Wednesday in February. You are not required to be present.
  • Once a student is enrolled and attending the school, there is no need to reapply each subsequent year. A student's seat is guaranteed until at least the first day of school, unless a parent notifies the school otherwise.

 

Admission Standards

 

  • Mountain Island Charter School is a public school and requires no application fee or tuition.
  • In order to be eligible for admission, students or their guardian are required to reside in the State of North Carolina at the time of the application.
  • Under North Carolina General Statute (GS115C-391), Mountain Island Charter School may refuse admission to any student who has been expelled or suspended from a public school, until the period of suspension or expulsion has expired.
  • MICS reserves the right to refuse admission to any student that has not met the academic requirements for the grade level they have applied to enter.
  • MICS does not limit admission to students on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, athletic ability, disability, race, creed, gender, national origin, religion, or ancestry.

 

Lottery Procedures 

 

MICS's 2022-2023 school year lottery was held at Mountain Island Charter School on February 9, 2022.  Results were sent to parents by email, if an address was supplied, or by postal service.

 

The MICS lottery is open to the general public, but attendance is not required for acceptance.

 

The lottery procedure must ensure that each eligible applicant, who submitted an application prior to the lottery application deadline, will have an equal opportunity to be randomly selected. It must also continue until all eligible applicants have been selected and placed on a final list.

 

The lottery will be run by a computer program hosted and maintained by Powerschool.

 

When the lottery is run, it will assign a random number to every single applicant. The applicants are then either placed or wait listed according to priority and space availability in each grade level. Twins and triplets are always admitted together and cannot be split by the school at admission.

 

 

Priority of Enrollment

 

Priority in enrollment is not a guarantee of a seat, there must be available space in grade or program. Once a student uses any enrollment priority to enroll, he or she may not use any priority again.

 

Enrollment priority may be awarded to the following, with priority given in this order:

 

1. Children of the school's full time employees and Board of Directors. This number cannot exceed 15% of the school's total enrollment unless granted a waiver by the State Board of Education.

 

2. Siblings of currently enrolled students. Applicants must share a residence and a legal guardian with a currently enrolled MICS student to be considered an eligible sibling.
 
3. Siblings of new students accepted in the lottery. It is the goal of North Carolina and MICS to keep families together when possible. You cannot claim this priority, it is automatically granted by the lottery process when a new student is accepted in the lottery.

 

4. Siblings of students who have graduated from MICS and who were enrolled in at least 4 grade levels at MICS.

 

5. Opportunity priority. A student who was enrolled at MICS within the two previous school years but left to participate in (1) an academic study abroad program or competitive admission residential program or (2) because of the vocational opportunities of the student's parent. If you feel you qualify for Opportunity priority, you must contact the registrar directly at [email protected] or 704/827-8840 x1013.

 

 6. Current Charter school students. A student enrolled in another NC Charter school in the previous school year.

 

 

Post Application Period Applications 

 

The school will decide each year whether or not to accept applications after the deadline. 

 

If accepted, any applications received after the stated deadline will be added to the end of the waiting list in the order that they are received. Admissions priorities will be honored. Order of receipt will be determined by the time stamp on the email or online entry, and the time of day that standard mail is delivered on that day. If multiple late entries are received simultaneously (exact same timestamp or mail delivery day), they will be listed in alphabetical order of their middle name (or first if no middle is given).   

 

For the 2022-2023 school year, late entries will be accepted (added to the end of the wait list), until at least the first day of school, or the date where it appears the waiting list will be too long to accommodate. Any late enrollment application cutoff will be posted on the website and is effective immediately.

   

For questions or more information regarding enrollment, please contact the Registrar at [email protected]