Response to Peralta on Charis Prep Article

A recent letter to the editor from Mr. Carlos Peralta, the minister associated with Heart of David Ministries in Eureka, leveled several accusations at me personally, and at others, regarding our story in the Wayne-Wilson edition two weeks ago.
One of our reporters showed the story in its entirety to Mr. Peralta two days before it was published, and asked for his comments. Mr. Peralta told the reporter he was not going to comment to him any further, because the reporter is associated with me.
Mr. Peralta apparently believes I have some sort of vendetta against him and his school. That is not the case. I do have a history with Mr. Peralta that began when I was sports editor of the Goldsboro News-Argus and he was coaching basketball at Wayne Country Day School.
Mr. Peralta attempted to open Charis Prep two years ago, when he was the minister at Abundant Life Church in Goldsboro. I wrote two investigative pieces and one column on the school, all of which can be viewed on the Internet by searching the name Charis Prep.
I have not seen or heard from Mr. Peralta between that time and two months ago, when our reporter told me a minister named Carlos Peralta was going to open a private school in the old Eureka School building.
I still have not seen or spoken to Mr. Peralta, but our reporter has had a few conversations with him and the folks at Heart of David Ministries.
In checking background information on the Charis Prep story, we uncovered information on the school from its former location at Summit Christian Academy, and we ran that story. Again, we offered Mr. Peralta the opportunity to comment on it before it printed, and he declined.
Mr. Peralta wrote in his letter to the editor that I was terminated from the News-Argus. I have no idea how Mr. Peralta managed to read my confidential personnel file from the News-Argus, but if he did, he did not read it well. I left the News-Argus of my own volition in order to pursue a journalism career outside sports writing. The News-Argus will attest to that fact.
Mr. Peralta also said that the state of North Carolina recognizes Charis Prep as an organization owned and operated by Carlos Peralta. If that is the case, could Mr. Peralta please explain why no state organization that we can find can attest to that fact? Would Mr. Peralta please identify the state organization that has recognized Charis Prep as belonging to him?
The only state department that even knows the name “Charis Prep” is the Department of Administration, who oversees non-public instruction. That organization recognizes “Summit Christian Academy/Charis Prep” as the legal name of the school operated by First Assembly of God in Goldsboro.
Rev. Ralph Painter, the senior pastor of First Assembly, has documentation that shows Mr. Peralta’s school was merged into Summit Christian Academy and remains there to this day, operating under First Assembly’s non-profit ID number.
And to repeat the question I asked two years ago — would Mr. Peralta please show us the school’s accreditation by a sanctioned educational accreditation group? Every school in the country must be accredited for a college to accept a student’s transcript from that school, By our countm there are 11 basketball players that were on collegiate rosters as of last season that claim to have attended Charis Prep. Yet Mr. Peralta has never shown documentation that his school was approved by an accrediting authority — to anyone.
Mr. Peralta claims he never said he was the pastor of Heart of David Ministries. In doing an interview with Mr. Peralta for our story of July 27, News Leader reporter Reggie Ponder heard Mr. Peralta identify himself as the minister of Heart of David Ministries. Mr. Ponder, incidentally, is a Methodist minister.
If Mr. Peralta has another take on this story, we would love to hear it, and would be glad to publish it, just as we did his letter to the editor.
In the meantime, this may not the last investigative piece we run on Charis Prep. We would welcome Mr. Peralta’s input and cooperation as we prepare these stories