Charleston Development Academy Public Charter School (CDA) will hold a March 22 gala at the Charleston Marriott to remind the community of the school’s past successes and the promise to shape future generations.
The event will begin with a 6 p.m. cocktail hour followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the school or online via Eventbrite.
“The Charleston Development Academy’s educational approach has evolved over time while staying true to its core vision,” said CDA’s director Dr. Shawn Johnson. “Equipped with the pillars of hope, faith, discipline, and unwavering focus, we persist as a driving force for positive change within our community.”
Founded in 1999 at Ebenezer AME Church on Charleston’s east side as one of the first charter schools, CDA grew out of a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign to open a school for the city’s most vulnerable students, he said.
The school opened Aug. 11, 2003, in modest surroundings at the Septima P. Clark Community Center in the Gadsden Green community with 35 eager K5 through third-grade children, recalled Cecilia Gordon Rodgers, the school’s founding director.
“We wanted to provide a safe and nurturing environment to encourage excellence and character building to promote personal and social development of the students,” said Rodgers, who retired in 2014.
The school now serves 133 K4 through 5th grade students at the Septima P. Clark campus and 67 sixth- through eighth-graders at the Reid House on St. Philip Street.
The school has received prestigious awards, including the South Carolina Department of Education’s Palmetto Gold Achievement Award and the elementary and middle schools have received an excellent rating on the S.C. State Department of Education Report Card, Johnson said.
Rodgers said former CDA students are a continuing source of pride. “I see students from time to time, and they call me to let me know what they are doing,” she said. “They are working in many different careers, and they have done very very well.”
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