Vernon Malone College and Career Academy (VMCCA), is one of the flagship schools of

Wake County Public School System The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is a public school district located in Wake County, North Carolina. With 157,673 students in average daily membership and 194 schools as of the 2021–2022 school year, it is the largest public sc ...

. It is an application-based

early college The Early College High School Initiative in the United States allows students to receive a high school diploma and an associate degree, or up to two years of college credit, by taking a mixture of high school and college classes. This differs fr ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The building was formerly a

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

bottling plant A bottling company is a commercial enterprise whose output is the bottling of beverages for distribution. Many bottling companies are franchisees of corporations such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo who distribute the beverage in a specific geographic ...

before being renovated to its current configuration.: It was first opened in 2014 as a

career and technical education Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an ind ...

institution focusing on college and career readiness. It has six programs offered to students through

Wake Technical Community College Wake Technical Community College (Wake Tech) is a public community college in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its first location, Southern Wake Campus, opened in 1963. Wake Tech now operates multiple campuses throughout Wake County. The largest communit ...

which include; Biopharmaceutical Technology,

Cosmetology Cosmetology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyle, hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/p ...

, Multi-Trades/Facilities Technology, Nurse Aide, Simulation and Game Development, and

Welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...

. The school is formally a part of the

. Their official mascot is a ''Silverhawk''.

History

Vernon Malone College and Career Academy is named after former educator, politician, and school administrator,

Vernon Malone Vernon Malone (December 20, 1931 – April 18, 2009) was a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's fourteenth Senate district from 2003 until his death in 2009. His district included constituents in ...

. Malone was consequential in merging Wake County Public Schools and Raleigh schools, ending

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

in the area. When choosing the name for the college and career academy, the Wake County

board of education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

unanimously passed a resolution signifying their support for the school to be named after Malone, who had formerly served as the first Chairman for Wake County Public Schools following the merger. The inaugural principal when the school opened in 2014, was Dr. Ashlie Thompson. She has since left the position and now serves as an Area Superintendent for Wake County Public Schools in the district that Vernon Malone College and Career Academy is in. The school cost $24.5 million to construct. During

Hurricane Matthew Hurricane Matthew was an extremely powerful Atlantic hurricane which caused catastrophic damage and a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, as well as widespread devastation in the southeastern United States. The deadliest Atlantic hurricane sinc ...

, the Raleigh area sustained heavy rainfall which flooded Vernon Malone College and Career Academy and displaced students for a few months while repairs were made. A student was arrested in February 2018 for threatening to 'shoot up' Vernon Malone College and Career Academy during a FaceTime conversation. The school responded by increasing security at the school.

Location

Vernon Malone College and Career Academy is located at 220 South Wilmington Street in Raleigh, North Carolina. The school is just south of highway

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

and the

Raleigh Beltline Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southea ...

Students

Vernon Malone College and Career Academy operates on a modified-traditional calendar. Students begin school at 7:25 AM and end at 2:18 PM. They operate on a standard 2 Core 2 Electives

block schedule Block scheduling or blocking is a type of academic scheduling used in schools in the American K-12 system, in which each pupil has fewer classes per day. It is more common in middle and high schools than in primary schools. Each class is schedu ...

. In its first year, the school only had 131 students, which was only 28% of its capacity. In 2016, the school had a total 306 students, with a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.1. 42.5% of students in 2016 received free or reduced lunch.

Academics

Vernon Malone College and Career Academy offers 4

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

literature courses, 7

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

courses, 5

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

courses, 5 Social Studies history courses, 6

Foreign Language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at schoo ...

courses, 5

Physical Education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

(PE) courses, 4

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

courses, and 12

Career and Technical Education Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an ind ...

(CTE) courses, not including any of the Wake Technical Community College courses. Of those courses, 3 are

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

(AP). These courses are accompanied by the 7 college programs, offered by Wake Technical Community College. Students are able to receive college credits that can be applied towards an

Associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...

, diploma, or certificate at Wake Tech. The school also offers various fifth-period courses after school for juniors and seniors.

Sports

Athletics programs are not offered at Vernon Malone College and Career Academy. Students are eligible to participate in athletics at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School.

Clubs & Organizations

Vernon Malone College and Career Academy has 13 official clubs/organizations as of the 2018-2019 school year * Gaming Club *

Key Club Key Club International, also called Key Club, is an international service organization for high school students. As a student-led organization, Key Club's goal is to encourage leadership through serving others. Key Club International is the hig ...

National Achievers Society National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

* Programming Club * Public Speaking & Debate Club * Robotics Club * Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) *

SkillsUSA SkillsUSA is a United States career and technical student organization serving more than 395,000 high school, college and middle school students and professional members enrolled in training programs in trade, technical and skilled service occu ...

Student Government A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

* Teen Democrats * The Academy * Yearbook Club

Awards

In 2018, Vernon Malone College and Career Academy received the '' Magnet School of Distinction Award'' for meeting all basic requirements outlined in the merit awards scoring rubric.

References

{{reflist Magnet schools in North Carolina Schools in Raleigh, North Carolina Career and technical education 2014 establishments in North Carolina