School overview
North East Carolina Preparatory School
A pre-K to 12 public charter school in Tarboro with a growing online academy and a new sports complex under construction
Who runs North East Carolina Prep?
North East Carolina Preparatory School is a tuition-free public charter school in Tarboro serving about 1,000 students from pre-K through 12th grade, plus an online Remote Academy for grades 6-12. Like other North Carolina charters, it gets state and local per-student funding based on enrollment, plus federal grants, but is run by its own nonprofit board instead of the county school board. The board of directors is not elected by voters. It meets monthly at 11:30 a.m. and approves monthly budget and enrollment reports, policies and personnel. Day-to-day leadership is the executive director, Dr. Mark Cockrell.
Board
Chair Anne Mann, Vice Chair Cara Archer, and directors Dr. Lane Freeman, Beatriz Ward and Chris Wood (website roster).
Funding
Money follows enrollment, so the board reviews enrollment each month alongside the budget.
Debt
The school has bond financing; its 2024-25 audit had to be corrected for figures lenders watch.
Growth
A new sports complex, a dual language kindergarten, and a request to make the Remote Academy statewide.
Board votes in these minutes passed without dissent, and the corrected audit did not change the overall totals.
Where the district stands
Federal NCES count; context only.
Major projects
Sports complex, gym and ball fields
delayedFootball field, track, lights, bleachers and fencing were under construction in spring 2026. The gym and softball and baseball fields waited on a wetlands study and Army Corps of Engineers report.
- Work halted over contractor permits
- Tentative June start for gym and fields, about 102 days
- Waiting on Corps of Engineers report
Funding
Not stated in minutes; a naming-rights donation covers the baseball field name
Statewide Remote Academy
proposedThe board asked the state in March 2026 to let the online Remote Academy enroll students statewide instead of regionally.
- Board approved request to NC DPI
Funding
Per-student funding
Dual language program
in_progressBegan with two kindergarten classes (40 students); the school expected to add another class for 2026-27.
- Update to the board
Funding
Not stated
Recent news
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Practical guides to school phone policies, district budgets, and administrator hiring.
Explore resources →Built from the board's posted minutes (November 2025 to May 2026, scanned and read with OCR), the 2026-27 board schedule and school calendar, the student-parent and Remote Academy handbooks, and the school improvement plan, all from the school's website.
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