Original Research by School Decision on Sandhills Theatre Arts Renaiss
Sandhills Theatre Arts Renaiss is a small charter district in Moore County, North Carolina, serving kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district consists of a single school, STARS Charter, located in Vass. With an enrollment drawn from across the district's service area, the school population is majority white, with a meaningful Hispanic enrollment and smaller populations of Black students, multiracial students, and other groups.
The enrollment spans from kindergarten through eighth grade in person, along with a small cohort of eleventh and twelfth grade students. This configuration reflects a significant recent change: the district's board voted to phase out its high school program, ending in-person grades nine through twelve by 2025. The rationale, as publicly reported, was that the high school had not reached a self-supporting enrollment level and was being subsidized by the lower grades. For families with high-school-aged children, this means the district no longer offers an in-person secondary option; those students must enroll in Moore County Schools or pursue alternative schooling.
In response to this shift, the district launched STARS Virtual Academy, a tuition-free, statewide online K-8 public school option. This remote offering extends the district's reach beyond Vass and provides North Carolina families with a full-time distance-learning choice, should that model suit their circumstances. The virtual school is a lasting program, not a temporary pandemic response.
State assessment data for the district was not available, so proficiency trends and performance across tested subjects cannot be characterized here. Similarly, the district's graduation rate cannot be reported, as the in-person high school closure means the district no longer operates a traditional secondary program. Free-or-reduced-price lunch rates and counts of students with individualized education plans were not reported in the available data.
Among Moore County's three districts, Sandhills Theatre Arts Renaiss has a chronic absenteeism rate that sits below the county midpoint, a relatively positive standing. Per-pupil current spending falls in the middle range, on the lower half of the county's three districts.
Parents evaluating this district should understand that it is now primarily an elementary and middle grades operation in person, with a high school program no longer available at the Vass campus. The virtual academy represents the district's expanded footprint and may appeal to families seeking remote instruction. For those needing in-person high school, Moore County Schools would be the district option within the area.
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