Original Research by School Decision on Mina Charter School of Lee County
MINA Charter School of Lee County is a small, publicly funded charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Sanford, North Carolina. The school currently enrolls a diverse student body, with roughly equal shares of Black and Hispanic students, alongside smaller populations of white, multiracial, and Asian students, with a very small number of American Indian students.
The school is undergoing substantial changes. In February 2024, the board voted to rebrand to Rising Leaders Academy, a shift that will be visible across enrollment websites, records, and reporting platforms for some time as the transition completes. More significantly, the school is transitioning from a K-8 model to K-5 only. Current students in grades 6 through 8 may complete their time at the school, but no new middle school students will be accepted beyond this cohort. For families with older elementary students, this means the school no longer offers a pathway through middle grades; parents planning a K-8 journey should understand that after fifth grade, their child would need to enroll elsewhere.
Academic performance is a key consideration. The school has been designated by North Carolina as low-performing, and proficiency rates in both math and reading are below state benchmarks. State testing data was not available in its full form, but the designation itself signals that students are not meeting grade-level standards at the rates seen in higher-performing districts. A parent evaluating this school would want to discuss current academic support structures, any intervention programs, and realistic expectations around proficiency gains with school leadership directly.
Chronic absenteeism is substantially above the midpoint among Lee County's other districts, a metric that reflects either student engagement patterns, transportation barriers, or family circumstances that the school and families may need to work through together. The school's per-pupil spending sits in the upper half of the range for Lee County districts, suggesting investment in the school's operations, though spending alone does not determine outcomes.
The school does not report free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, or English learner counts in the available data, so a parent cannot see at a glance what share of students come from low-income households or have identified learning differences or language development needs. Information on these demographics and any associated support services would be worth requesting directly from the school.
Enrollment is concentrated in the lower grades, with kindergarten being the largest cohort and each successive grade smaller, a pattern consistent with a school that is either new, growing, or retaining fewer students as they advance. The overall enrollment is small for an entire K-8 district, giving the school an intimate scale but potentially limiting the breadth of courses, clubs, and peer groups available as the school has operated.
Families considering this school should weigh the rebranding and grade restructuring as signals of intentional change, request detailed information on academic supports and current performance trends, and have direct conversations with leadership about the school's vision for its new identity and smaller scope.
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