- March 10, 2025
The abrupt closure of Global Outreach Charter Academy means Flagler County’s $258,385 contribution to the school is also gone, according to officials.
Global Outreach, which closed Jan. 1, just one day before students were scheduled to resume classes following winter break, was the multilingual kindergarten- through eighth-grade school located at the Flagler County Airport.
Last week, officials with Global Outreach confirmed the closure was because of financial reasons.
At Tuesday’s School Board meeting, Stewart Maxcy, charter schools liaison for Flagler County Public Schools, gave a recap of the closure and how it would impact Flagler County.
“We knew they were struggling, and we tried to help them out,” Maxcy said.
Global Outreach officials even went before the County Commission to change the rent payments to help raise more money. But in the end, the school simply couldn’t remain open.
“Despite all of our efforts to help them out, I got a call 2:30 p.m. Jan. 1, saying (they were) not going to open in the morning,” Maxcy said.
The $258,385 the county contributed went toward salaries, transportation, text books, desks, chairs, technology and other materials.
Maxcy said the district will be able to recoup the materials — such as the desks, chairs, text books, laptops — but not the money that went toward salaries, benefits and transportation.
The money given by the county to the school was based on the number of students they were serving. The student enrollment was 122, although Global Outreach had hoped to eventually have an enrollment of 350.
Added Maxcy: “So, the update is: Yes, they’ve closed down. The county is out of rent, and we’re going to pay for our equipment, and we will move on and go from there.”
With Global Outreach closing, Maxcy also confirmed Tuesday night that 86 of the 122 students have enrolled at a traditional public school or have come to the district to get paperwork for home-schooling.
In addition, Imagine School at Town Center picked up 16 students and Palm Harbor Academy added eight.
“It is very disappointing,” School Board member Andy Dance said to end the discussion.
