COLUMBIA, South Carolina — A historically Black university is preparing to oversee its own public middle and high school. C.R. Neal Academy, a tuition-free public charter school planned for Atlas Road in southeast Columbia, is set to open in August 2027 under the authorization of Voorhees University — the first charter school in the nation authorized by an HBCU, according to the school and the university. Applications for the first school year open Wednesday, October 28.
Here is what the school is, in plain terms: a free public charter school that will eventually serve grades 6 through 12. It opens next August with about 260 students — 130 sixth graders and 130 ninth graders — and will add grades until it reaches about 910 students within four years. Students will follow a college-preparatory track alongside career training in health sciences, advanced manufacturing and information technology, with industry credentials and work-based learning built into the program.
The authorizer is the Voorhees University Charter Institute of Learning, launched by the HBCU in Denmark, South Carolina, in 2024 as the only HBCU-based charter authorizer in the state. The institute’s board unanimously approved C.R. Neal Academy on April 16, 2026 — its first school, chosen after the board turned away six other applicants over two cycles. Voorhees President Ronnie Hopkins, who chairs the institute’s board, called the approval a “historic moment”. The university will oversee the school’s academic performance, finances and community commitments.
The significance is structural: HBCUs have historically met Black students at 18, after 12 years in school systems those students had no hand in shaping. Here, a university is taking responsibility for the pipeline itself — a model a 2024 Progressive Policy Institute report described as largely untapped nationally.
Columbia’s Board of Zoning Appeals approved a special exception for the campus on September 3, clearing the way for a roughly 41,000-square-foot facility in the 2600–2700 blocks of Atlas Road, replacing an existing community center and grass field. The Rooted School Foundation is the school’s network partner, providing funding and operational support — the school’s full name is “C.R. Neal Academy, a Rooted School” — and organizers reported 266 prospective-family leads as of September. Bible Way Church of Atlas Road owns part of the site and supports the project.
The school’s namesake appears to be C.R. Neal, remembered in Bible Way Church of Atlas Road’s official history as the principal of Atlas Road Elementary School who opened his school’s doors to the congregation after its building burned in 1966.
The honest caveat: the school is not open yet. Opening is set for August 2027, and the campus still has to be built.
For families in the Columbia area with a rising sixth or ninth grader, applications for the 2027–28 school year open October 28 through the school’s website, crnealacademy.org. Enrollment preferences and any lottery rules have not yet been published.
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