Original Research by School Decision on Marjorie Williams Academy
Marjorie Williams Academy is a small K-12 charter district serving one school in Avery County. The enrollment is quite small, with kindergarten through twelfth grade all on one campus. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students, and a very small number of American Indian students. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, as well as counts of students with individualized education plans or English learner designation, was not available.
State assessment results and graduation rate data were not provided in the available records, so a reader cannot see how this district's academic proficiency compares within the county or how students progress to completion. The comparison fact-set for Avery County districts did not have enough data points to position this entity meaningfully against its neighbors.
What distinguishes the academy in the public record is its pedagogical identity and recent momentum in graduation outcomes. The school operates under a Sanctuary Model of Care framework, a trauma-informed approach to school culture and discipline. According to publicly reported sources, the school's four-year graduation rate climbed substantially between the 2022-23 and 2024-25 school years, a shift the operator describes as material for a school serving students with significant economic disadvantage and foster-care experience. The charter operator, Crossnore Communities for Children, received state approval in late 2023 to open a sister charter school using the same model, and the Williams Academy approach has been adopted as a statewide training model for trauma-resilient systems. This signals that the school's structure and teaching philosophy are not experimental or temporary but embedded in the operator's long-term vision.
For families considering enrollment, the key facts are the small size, the explicit focus on trauma-informed care and school culture rather than traditional academic acceleration, and evidence of recent progress in getting students to graduation. The academy appears positioned for families whose children have experienced adversity and who value a school built around healing and resilience alongside academics. Without state proficiency data or detailed graduation numbers in the public record, a parent would benefit from directly asking the school about academic outcomes, curriculum breadth, and how the trauma-informed model translates into daily classroom practice and student support.
See more original research from School Decision →