The Lake Wales Charter School board and administration will hold their annual retreat Thursday at Lake Wales High School, using the event as an opportunity to review the past year and to discuss initiatives such as the new International Baccalaureate program and the STEM emphasis (science, technology, engineering, and math. The intracacies of FCAT 2.0 will be explained and reviewed in a presentation by Director of Accountability Gary Loar.

The state of the local economy as well as the proposed charter school’s budget for next year will be reviewed, and the budget will be discussed again at the boards’ work session at 3:30 p.m. the same day.