This week, we are profiling Michelle Vruwink, the extraordinary founder and executive director of The Franklin School of Innovation in Asheville, NC.
When Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina in September, Michelle Vruwink didn’t know how bad it was at first. With no cell phone service and no Wi-Fi, it was difficult to gauge the magnitude of what had happened.
“It was such a strange experience,” she said. “And we didn’t know the extent of it because we were just so isolated.”
That isolation didn’t last long.
Michelle, the founder and executive director of The Franklin School of Innovation (FSI), which serves students in grades 5-12, got to work alongside her community. While the FSI campus did not experience much damage, the devastating impacts on the broader community were apparent. So, the school opened its doors to help.
“We had power and Wi-Fi on our campus about two to three days after the storm, so we were able to open our building up,” Michelle said. “We set up a distribution site in our building, so we became a little hub where people could come and get supplies, power, whatever they needed.”
Recovering and reopening together
There were 21 charter schools in North Carolina that reported storm impacts after Hurricane Helene. One of them, FernLeaf Community Charter School, had its Creek Campus destroyed by the massive flooding.
Michelle and other local school leaders—district and charter—began working together to try to tackle the daunting task of reopening all their schools.
“The county started hosting meetings between district schools and charters and the emergency response team, looking at all the options,” Michelle said. “We were all trying to scramble for reopening our own schools, but also how we would get all the schools in this area reopened. What this did was gave us an avenue where we had to think ‘Can we reopen for our 700 students?’ but also ‘Can we reopen for all of the students in this region?’”
One major learning from this experience for Michelle: school buildings really, really need running water.
“It was pretty humbling, just how dependent we are on water to open buildings,” Michelle said. “We were ready to drill a well.”
And another major lesson: support from community members near and far is critical.
“It definitely brought people together across political divides. Asheville is a blue dot in a larger red area, but that all got put aside,” Michelle said. “There was such a strong feeling of, ‘How do we all come together as a community and do our part?’” FSI reopened at the end of October.
A journey to school leadership
Michelle didn’t have a traditional path into education—she began her career in public administration and worked in a variety of nonprofit settings.
Eventually, she and her husband launched an education research practice, supporting school districts with emerging technology initiatives. They enrolled their kids in their local public schools and had positive experiences.
But when their youngest son hit middle school, Michelle noticed a jarring change. He was less engaged, not wanting to attend school. In her process of trying to figure out what was going on and offer support to her son, Michelle reached out to a lot of fellow parents.
“There was this sense that middle school sucks, and kids just have to get through it,” she said. “To me, middle school kids are really in this magical time. The idea that we were missing out on one of the most transformative times by not meeting kids’ needs in middle school just felt wrong.”
Launching FSI
So, Michelle sought to create a different option for kids. She worked alongside parents and educators in the community to develop a school where students could be engaged and become lifelong learners.
Michelle was drawn to the charter school model for the flexibility it offered and the opportunities it presented for meaningful family engagement. She was also committed to providing an option for families who couldn’t afford private school.
In 2014, FSI opened its doors. It later built a new campus, where construction was ultimately completed in 2023.
FSI has now grown to serve over 750 middle and high school students. It uses the Expeditionary Learning (EL Education) model, which combines a character-based approach to learning with a hands-on, collaborative, learn-by-doing curriculum. As Michelle puts it: “Schools have a role to play in creating kids that can change the world.”
Offering support
After Hurricane Helene, Michelle and the FSI community felt, as she put it, “that outside love” pour in.
“We had schools in New Orleans reach out to us because they had been through Hurricane Katrina,” she said. “I was absolutely blown away by that.”
As wildfires have devastated Los Angeles, Michelle is thinking about the educators and students there.
“With the experiences now in California, I’ve already had conversations with folks here about how to support,” she said. “This experience for us is still fresh and raw, but we’re looking for where we can help. Yes, it’s fire versus water, but the devastation is the same.”
We hope you’ll look for where you can support fellow CharterFolk, too. To help out in North Carolina, you can contribute to FSI’s Stronger Together Hurricane Recovery Fund here. To help out in Los Angeles, you can contribute via the California Charter Schools Association’s Southern California Wildfire Relief Fund here.