Empowering Excellence Charter School in Cedar Rapids expanding to 9th and 10th grades

Cedar Rapids’ first charter school, Empowering Excellence, will expand this fall to serve 14- to 21-year-olds and any high school student who is a resident of Iowa and demonstrates a need for the program after receiving approval Thursday from the Iowa State Board of Education.

The state board also approved six new applications for charter schools expected to open in Iowa by fall 2026. The new charter schools will be opening in Davenport, Des Moines, south Des Moines and Crescent.

The approval of these applications brings the total number of charter schools approved in the state to 17. Two other charter schools were approved last year to open in Cedar Rapids this fall.

Charter schools are tuition-free schools that are publicly funded, but independently run under an approved charter with the state. In Iowa, charter schools receive per-pupil aid from the state, just like public schools.

The National Education Association opposes charter schools because they are privately managed and not held accountable by locally elected school boards and, the association says, divert funding away from traditional public schools. Neither charter schools nor traditional public schools can claim to be more successful at raising student achievement, the group says.

What are the changes being made to Empowering Excellence?

The Iowa State Board of Education approved three amendment requests to Empowering Excellence’s charter Thursday.

Empowering Excellence is the first of three charters to open in Cedar Rapids. The school doubled in size in its first month of operation in September 2024 — going from about 75 to 150 high school students.

The school was created by local educator Sarah Swayze, who until this academic year operated a nonprofit called Empowering Youths of Iowa that provided one-on-one mentoring to students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

  Buy Photo

The initial charter approved last year allowed Empowering Excellence to serve students between the ages of 16 and 21 who are residents of Cedar Rapids or neighboring communities.

The amendment to the charter will allow any student in Iowa, age 14 to 21, to enroll in Empowering Excellence. The move opens the school to freshmen and sophomores in high school who have already shown to be behind in credits or academic progress in their previous or current high school.

“We don’t want kids coming directly out of eighth grade into Empowering Excellence. We want to see evidence the traditional high school isn’t working for them, and then they come here,” Swayze told the state board.

The amendment also removed the requirement for students to be residents of Cedar Rapids or a neighboring community. Any student who is a resident of Iowa is able to attend Empowering Excellence.

The school offers classes through the online learning platform Edmentum. Laptops are provided to students through Empowering Excellence.

Another amendment to the charter allows the school to be located within Cedar Rapids or the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area. Previously, the charter listed the school’s address at its current location in Collins Community Credit Union, 1800 First Ave. NE in suite #201 in Cedar Rapids.

The school is planning to move to a larger location next year, possibly at 317 Seventh Ave. SE in downtown Cedar Rapids, the home of several nonprofits at the Human Services campus, Swayze told The Gazette in October.

The state board also approved an amendment for the charter to waive its participation in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program, which provides free or reduced-cost meals for students unable to afford the full cost.

Swayze said the school will continue providing students who opt-in a free lunch daily. On average 20 students eat lunch every day at Empowering Excellence, she said.

“It’s more effective for us to participate with a vendor than to try to go through the school lunch program,“ Swayze said.

“The staff it takes to meet all the qualifications of the program, we don’t have that staff and can’t afford that staff right now,” Swayze said. “Right now, we don’t charge students for the meals we provide, and that will continue. We’re not going to stop that, we’re just asking to not be a part of the national school lunch program right now.”

This year, the school has collaborated with a food service management company to provide meals to students.

Cedar Rapids district reacts

Enrollment into charter schools has steadily risen since they were introduced in Iowa a few years ago. In the fall of 2022, the Cedar Rapids Community School District had only three students enrolled in charter schools. By the fall of 2024, that number has grown to 112, with about 100 of those enrolled in Empowering Excellence.

It is important to clarify that charter schools, including Empowering Excellence Charter School, are not affiliated with the Cedar Rapids Community School District, Cedar Rapids district spokeswoman Heather Butterfield said in an email to The Gazette.

“The increased enrollment in charter schools comes with challenges for traditional public schools. Charter schools are governed by boards that are not elected locally and are not held to the same accountability standards as public school districts. Their growth reduces resources for local school districts, which have long been the cornerstone of our community. For example, the enrollment shift to charter schools is expected to reduce (the Cedar Rapids district’s) fiscal year 2025 budget” — which ends June 30, 2025 — ”by approximately $855,120,” Butterfield said.

Other charter schools approved to operate in Iowa

One of the new charter school applications approved Thursday is for an Opportunity Education school in Davenport. Opportunity Education is opening Quest Forward Academy in Cedar Rapids this fall, which will serve grades six and nine, and grow by one grade each year, until eventually it is offering sixth to 12th grade. The plan is for the school to serve about 220 students in its first year.

Opportunity Education plans to open its Davenport school in fall 2026 and serve 6-12th grade. In its first year, the school expects an enrollment of 215 students, growing to 785 students in its fifth year.

The principal of Quest Forward is Justin Blietz, who previously was principal of Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy, a middle school in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

The other charter school opening in Cedar Rapids — approved by the state Board of Education last year — is a K-5th grade elementary school operated by CIVICA.

These are the other charter school applications approved Thursday:

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com