Upper Room in Raleigh getting smaller, almost empty

The high school and middle school at the Upper Room Academy are gone…Rodney Purvis(N.C. State) went there and now the Upper Room is almost gone completely…

They will keep the lower school, but the Upper Room in Raleigh is almost empty…Due to the financial hardships that the school is facing, they will now operate with K-5 grades only…

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6 thoughts on “Upper Room in Raleigh getting smaller, almost empty

  1. It is interesting that someone noted that this is the end of the basketball factory type of schools such as Upper Room. The reality is that most private schools are set up on the same level. Most private schools here that offer 9-12 grade will bost what percentage of their students participate in sports from basketball to soccer. Without sports, many of these schools would not survive either. What is puzzling about Upper Room is that they are backed by a large success church connected to them on the same grounds, they had a good public image, a good feeder system starting with elementary students, and they were well connected in the community. If Upper Room failed, then I would bet there are a number of other similar private schools in this area that are on the edge of financial disaster within the next year or so. The continued increase in chapter schools, a continuous shortage of jobs and cuts in budgets will soon kill more of these schools.

  2. Upper Room has the same business model as Word of God, Mount Zion, Quality Education, Christian Faith, Thomasville Prep, Evelyn Mack, United Faith….etc.

    They are hard business models to sustain as the basketball factory is not sustainable.

  3. Upper Room looks like they tried, but once they become a basketball school that does not stress academics they don’t last long. There is a long list of failed athletic high schools. You would think people would stop going to these places, but they still do.

  4. Surprised to hear about Upper Room going down and I don’t think it had much if anything to do with the “basketball factory”. They really only had Rodney as a “star” player and even though they had a well known coach they did not drive that as a recruiting force. Word of God and Mount Zion seem to be operating on a different level. Word of God’s program is more intregrated into the church theme and Mount Zion has proven that they can maintain their program in good and bad times over a 20 year period. Thomasville Prep has moved around 3 times in 3 years and it will live or die on the reputation of one central coach that the girls/parents are following/trusting. QE and United Faith do seem to be more “star” player driven. Not sure if these kids see these programs as places of education first or basketball first.

  5. The unfortunate piece of losing the Upper Room middle and high school programs is that it suggests that they were focused on education. If you only maintain K-5 which generally cares the lowest tuition cost, then it appears that you are truly focused on education. It is unfortunate the middle school could not be maintained. Many of the other schools that only carry high school 9-12 and the majority of the students are in high performance sports, then that suggests they are really just “basketball factories”. I wonder what many of the kids that go to places such as QE, Thomasville Prep and others are thinking that they will get from these schools. You would have to assume all of these schools meet some type of educational standards set by the state.

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