Charlotte Latin: At A Glance

A campus valued at more than $35 million is guaranteed to have breathtaking amenities. In the case of Charlotte Latin's 122-acre south Charlotte campus, these features include a Japanese garden, a butterfly garden, a pond that science classes use for experiments, and a cross-country trail through thirty acres of woods.

Students here range from four years old to high school seniors. On one side of campus, lower-school students descend on the playground for daily recess, while on the other side, teens dressed in Ugg boots, 7 jeans, and sweatshirts -- many emblazoned with logos of top colleges like Duke -- walk determinedly to their classes.

Upper-school students have a free period to check their e-mail in the media center or grab breakfast in the cafeteria, where students of all ages interact. On warm days, they hang out on the quad. Mac desktops are available in every classroom, and in one, a fifth-grader carries an iBook over to a classmate to show him a Web site. In the middle school, boys enthusiastically work with Legos and K'NEX toys in an engineering class, the only course offered in a single-gender environment.

Most hallway walls at Charlotte Latin's lower school are covered with students' pictures and stories. Throughout the campus, paintings, mosaics, and other student artwork are displayed in glass cases. Parents are often at the school volunteering, and on a late fall day a group of mothers sits on the carpeted floor of a multipurpose room sorting books that students donated as part of their book fair.