Commerce Academy. (Tom Croke)
Three new charter schools are slated for fall openings, including the first to open outside Providence.
Rhode Island’s existing charter schools, the Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, Times Square School and the Highlander School are all in Providence, which has a cap of four.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
A fourth school has been approved to open in Providence in September, the Paul Cuffee School, which will serve kindergarten through third grade and use the sea as the theme throughout its curriculum.
The International Charter School, set to open in Pawtucket, will offer multilingual instruction to children in kindergarten through second grade in the Pawtucket, Providence and Central Falls school districts. Students will have the option of learning in one of two tracks: English/Spanish or English/Portuguese. Both languages will be spoken during the school day. Eventually, the school hopes to introduce more languages into the program.
The school will have 90 students and nine to 10 staff members, according to the school’s project assistant, Kat Hellwig.
Students will be offered additional cultural opportunities through interactions with outside groups.
“Guest artists will offer additional educational opportunities in other cultures,” said Hellwig, listing art and dance as possible examples.
The school is still recruiting students and teachers, according to Hellwig.
Kingston Hill Academy will open in South Kingstown, sponsored by the Groden Center. The school will open with 40 kindergartners.
Rhode Island Charter School Coordinator Keith Oliveira said he expects the first charter schools to open outside Providence to be well-received, both in South Kingstown and Pawtucket. Both the Kingston Hill Academy and the International Charter School had very little opposition in the public comment phase of the approval process, he said.
“Partially because South Kingstown doesn’t offer full-day kindergarten, the people in that area have been particularly receptive to that,” said Oliveira.
Likewise, in the growing area of King Hill in Pawtucket, the International Charter School will “provide opportunities for kindergarten kids in that community without a greater burden on the Pawtucket School Department.”
Oliveira said he expects to begin reviewing proposals for new charter schools in the coming months, but that the state is ready.
“We want to make sure that we are developing quality charter schools,” he said. “That’s why we take on projects with measured growth.”
