- March 10, 2025
Global Outreach Charter Academy of Palm Coast, the bilingual kindergarten- through eighth-grade school located at the Flagler County Airport,closed its doors for good on Tuesday, just one day before classes were scheduled to resume — an abrupt move that forced 122 students to make a last-minute switch to other schools.
“We got the notice when the parents did on Jan. 1,” Superintendent Janet Valentine said Wednesday. “They said they would not be reopening their doors.”
The school was forced to close because of financial issues, according to Stewart Maxcy, Flagler’s charter schools liaison.
Kathleen Stow, principal of Global Outreach, confirmed that on Thursday. “The staff, the students, many of us are heartbroken over it,” Stow said at the school, as she waited for people to stop by to collect any belongings. “It’s just it’s a financial concern.”
Stow said her immediate focus is to make sure students have their records in order and that staff members get solid recommendations for jobs.
“I can tell you, I’ve been in a lot of schools, and this was probably my favorite one,” she said. “I think we were on track to have a really good school. Unfortunately, financially, it just couldn’t happen.”
The closing will impact students, parents and teachers. “There are 122 students there, and those students will have to transition somewhere,” Valentine said. “Whether that’s back to a traditional public school will be their parents’ choice.”
The news came as a shock for Christian Magnell, whose son, Wes, was a sixth-grade student at Global Outreach.
Magnell was out when he was sent an automated email and phone message notifying him of the closure.
“My wife called me really upset and said we have to figure out a school for Wes because his school is closing,” Magnell said.
Although the students at Global Outreach missed the school choice deadline, the district will still allow them to attend any Flagler school so long as they have transportation. If the student will use the district’s transportation, they must attend the home-zoned school.
“We’re going to try to make this transition as easy as possible on those students and parents,” Valentine said.
For 11-year-old Wes Magnell, that means a return to Rymfire Elementary School.
“We went over to Rymfire first thing (Wednesday),” Magnell said. “We love Rymfire, and we had no bad experiences there.”
Global Outreach paid $11,000 per month in rent to the county. However, at the Dec. 3 meeting of the County Commission, the school was granted a rent adjustment that allowed it to pay $13,500 for November and $8,000 a month from December until the August 2014 school year began, according to Carl Laundrie, communications manager for the county.
The rent payments would then increase to $15,500 for the duration of the school’s stay. Valentine said the school couldn’t meet its rent payments or afford other renovations it agreed to do.
The school, which was approved in January 2012, began classes in August — just five months ago.
The school’s original agreement with the county was a five-year contract with a target enrollment of 364 students.
Valentine said the district was planning to work with parents and staff at Global Outreach to make sure students could get their supplies that were left in the school before the break.
School Board member Colleen Conklin said via email Wednesday that the School Board was aware of some of Global Outreach’s financial struggles, but wasn’t aware of exactly “how bad things had become.”
“For the second time, we’ve seen families and students left in the dark when a charter school closes,” Conklin said. “It’s really unacceptable.”
The School Board has been more aggressive in its approach to companies that want to start a new new charter school, Conklin said. That was evident with the recent denial of a charter school application from The Leona Group.
In regard to Global Outreach, Conklin said there were some doubts early on in the process, but the district’s legal counsel said the application was in order and the State Board of Education would basically overturn a local denial — a situation similar to the Heritage Academy, which was denied locally but overturned at the state level. Heritage was eventually closed down because of poor performance in 2012.
“Regardless, when a charter school goes out of business, our students become the victims, and our tax dollars are flushed down the toilet,” Conklin said.
The school’s closing impacts the county, too.
Global Outreach had occupied the Commercial Airline Pilot Training hangar, a large building that has been primarily empty for years in the back of the airport.
Laundrie said there are no leads yet as to who could lease the building now. He did, however, point out that the airport is funded through gasoline sales, leases and rentals of land, not Flagler County property taxes.
“The airport’s income was better with the school lease, but it will remain on the positive side of the ledger without the school income,” Laundrie said.
Global Outreach’s bilingual curriculum was one of the main draws that lured the Magnells to the charter school. They also were able to enroll their son into free strings lessons.
“(Wes) was really enjoying studying Russian, and that’s one of the things we’re grieving most,” Magnell said. “We were really happy with the school. It’s unfortunate. It came as a shock.”
