This week, we profile Glenn Byrum, extraordinary board member for the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools and executive director of Mountain Island Charter School in Mt. Holly, N.C.
Glenn Byrum had big dreams for his career. Firmly rooted in his values and a deep sense of responsibility, he was sure he was going to do humanitarian work abroad. He even earned his bachelor’s degree in Spanish to help prepare.
After graduating college, he took a slight detour on his route to humanitarian work—he and his wife started a family, and he worked at a high school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The detour got a little longer after a stint as an elementary school Spanish teacher.
Still “figuring out” what he wanted to do, Glenn got a master’s degree in Spanish literature. He was hired at age 27 to be Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ world languages curriculum specialist—supervising language programming at more than 40 elementary and middle schools in Mecklenburg County. In that role, he helped spearhead a federal grant program bringing Arabic to the district—the first time in-person Arabic instruction had been offered in North Carolina.
‘Start-up energy’
But working at a large district—Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools serves nearly 150,000 students—presented challenges to Glenn.
“I felt like it was hard to get traction in a central office role in a large district,” he said. “So with care and skepticism, I approached a charter school.” He applied for his own child to attend.
“I learned more about the school, and I thought that with the start-up program I had done with Arabic, I thought it would be cool to bring that start-up energy to a charter school,” Glenn said.
With that, the detour from humanitarian work officially became Glenn’s career journey—at age 29, he became the founding middle school principal of Mountain Island Charter School.
A growing school
Glenn led Mountain Island through expansion—the school grew from K-7 to K-12, with Glenn’s role expanding to also be the founding high school principal. In 2021, he was named executive director, overseeing the full K-12 school. (Dr. Jake Wilson, the North Carolina Charter School Principal of the Year, who we’ve written about before, became the middle and high school principal.)
With that expansion, Glenn came to view the school—and himself—as having greater responsibility in the community.
“The question of how are we serving and leading not just within our school but beyond our school we are taking very seriously,” he said. “We want to make a bigger difference in our region and in the state and we want to make sure we operate with excellence and integrity and help those within our community.”
Connecting to advocacy
Key to that, from Glenn’s perspective, was forming a deep connection with the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools. He’s also involved with the North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools, which he views as also playing a critical role.
“Seeing our [Mountain Island] program rise in prominence, it brings a kind of ethical responsibility,” he said. “We’re really trying to model service and leadership, including taking care of our community, but also sharing what we’re learning and learning from others along the way.”
Amid Mountain Island’s active engagement with NCAPCS, Glenn asked the association’s leadership what else he could do to provide support. He was voted onto the board in July.
“I feel this sense of moral responsibility to help. My role as a board member is part of that larger effort. It comes back to my roots as a humanitarian,” he said.
‘The value in advocacy work’
Glenn would encourage other charter school leaders to engage with their state associations, as he has. But he acknowledges that can be a tall order.
“The demand and grind of daily operations being a charter school leader, helping get all the work done, it’s all on you as a director or a principal. You wear multiple hats. The value in advocacy work though is that you are doing that work together with other leaders. You can gain that practical support from a colleague,” Glenn said. “You can also gain the opportunity to be seen, to not feel like you’re the only one. That can be a very grounding and affirming experience.”
It’s an experience Glenn has been grateful for and views as critical to the charter school movement at large.
“When we unite our vision and speak to our communities, it doesn’t take a herculean effort if we work together,” he said. “We can move the agenda to promote equitable funding for charter schools and educate the public about what charter schools are. We’ve got to be looking for every advocacy opportunity we can find, not just the ones that are big.”
‘One community interaction at a time’
In that spirit, Mountain Island Charter School recently was invited by their local rotary club to come out and meet their members. Glenn, along with Jake, went and met with the group and did a presentation about charter schools.
“So much of advocacy isn’t just saying give us what we want,” Glenn said. “It’s about disarming the misinformation. We can do that one conversation and one community interaction at a time.”
As he looks ahead, Glenn’s humanitarian spirit shines through.
“The best thing we can do for kids is remember that we are not alone in doing our work for kids. Our community is our community. We are serving everyone, not just those in our enrollment,” he said. “Our kids are our kids, but it’s bigger than that.”