PITTSBORO, N.C. — Proceeds from a music festival that will be held here later this month will support a local charter school’s transportation program.
The Woods Charter School Foundation is sponsoring the WoodsRock III Musical Festival, which is an annual event that started in 2009. Charter schools receive no state or federal support for their transportation programs, according to Chatham Journal. Due to this, Woods Charter School is required to purchase its own school buses, title, license and insure them, and pay for all necessary repairs out of its general operating budget. This impacts the availability of funds to support other programs.
The WoodsRock festival is a community-wide effort: The participants who plan and work at the festival are volunteers, including the bands that perform.
Woods Charter School operates three bus routes. During the 2010-11 school year, students were provided with more than 25,000 rides to and from school and they were transported on 80 field trips, Chatham Journal reports.