Original Research by School Decision on Stambaugh Charter Academy
Stambaugh Charter Academy is a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade charter school district serving a student population of roughly five hundred. The enrollment is heavily concentrated in the lower grades, with a full kindergarten class and steadily smaller cohorts moving up through the grades; by eighth grade, only a handful of students remain. The student body is majority Black, with a substantial Hispanic enrollment and smaller groups of multiracial and white students. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special education or English learner enrollment were not available.
The school operates as a single institution under National Heritage Academies, a charter operator. The district brief search did not surface major recent shifts in curriculum, pedagogy, or operations that would signal a turning point for families. The school's website and publicly reported material emphasize a Moral Focus curriculum and partnership with the broader National Heritage system.
On state academic assessments, proficiency data were not reported, so it is not possible to characterize how students perform on tested subjects and grades. A graduation rate does not apply, as the school serves only through eighth grade. A parent may want to contact the school directly to ask about testing results, student achievement trends, and what happens to students as they leave the eighth-grade endpoint.
The most telling metric available is chronic absenteeism. Among the county's districts, Stambaugh's rate places it in the bottom quartile, meaning attendance is a significant issue relative to peers in Mahoning County. This is a concrete data point worth exploring with the school: what drives the absences, what supports exist to improve attendance, and how the school is addressing the pattern.
Per-pupil spending is in the upper-middle range among county districts, suggesting the school invests resources at a level comparable to many traditional public systems in the area. Whether those resources are reaching students effectively in light of the attendance challenge is an open question for families.
The grade-span design creates an unusual feature: this is not a typical K-8 pathway where students stay together. With kindergarten so large relative to the later grades, students either leave before eighth grade or the enrollment shrinks naturally. Parents should clarify the school's model for student progression, whether there is an expected exit point to middle or high school, and where students typically go next.
For a family considering Stambaugh, the core questions are whether the school's character-focused mission and NHA model fit your child, whether you can manage the attendance environment the data suggests, and what the academic results actually are. The absence of published proficiency metrics is a gap; asking the school directly for achievement data and enrollment trends is reasonable due diligence.
See more original research from School Decision →