Regents clear path for new schools

PROVIDENCE — Two local charter school initiatives were given the go-ahead by the state Department of Education on Thursday afternoon, paving the way for the schools to open in the fall of 2009 — assuming the needed funding is allocated.

On Thursday, the department’s Board of Regents voted 8-1 to approve the initiation of operations at both the Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley charter school and the Segue Institute for Learning, which will be housed in Cumberland and Central Falls, respectively.
The opening of both schools, however, will be contingent upon the availability of funding from the state, which was included in Gov. Don Carcieri’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. It was unclear, however, whether the Rhode Island General Assembly would approve the appropriation of this funding. When reached on Wednesday, Rep. Steven Costantino, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said he could not commit to the funding of the charter school initiatives, as Rhode Island’s fiscal future remains uncertain, and as he said, “there are other needs.”
“It’s still part of the budget process like everything else,” Costantino said. “It’s on the table.”
Colleen Callahan was the lone member of the Board of Regents to vote against approval for Segue. While discussing the Democracy Prep school — the first of Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee’s proposed mayoral academies — she noted that her feelings on the matter had more to do with the state’s current fiscal woes than any across-the-board opposition of charter schools.
“I think it’s a good idea at a terrible fiscal time,” Callahan said. “My concern is that we’re approving (the proposals) at this time.”
Following the board’s meeting, reaction was strongly positive among proponents of both school projects. Angelo Garcia, executive director of the Central Falls-based community organization Channel One, said he was glad to see Segue garner approval, as he and others involved in his organization had played a major role in the school’s creation and plan on remaining involved once it gets off the ground.
“We’re just very excited that we have what we see as an opportunity to work even closer with the kids and families in the city,” Garcia said. “We do (realize) that this is not going to be a small task.”
Garcia said the facility would be the only charter school in the state exclusively for middle school-age students, beginning with sixty sixth-grade students in its first year. He said the school’s organizers hoped for it to grow to 240 students after three years — adding 60 per year — while also adding seventh and eighth graders over that period.
Segue would be exclusively for Central Falls students, and would seek to work cooperatively with the city’s school district, Garcia said. He noted that Central Falls Superintendent of Schools Frances Gallo was a “member in good standing” of the school’s board of directors, restricted from voting on some matters, but supportive of the new school just the same. Also making the initiative happen, he said, were numerous active community members.
“This is a school that started with a grassroots movement,” Garcia said. “We’re not looking to create a silo school. We’re looking to work with the current school district.”
In a statement issued on behalf of Rhode Island Mayoral Academies (RIMA), meanwhile, McKee praised the Board of Regents’ decision to approve the start of the first mayoral academy. The statement noted that the school’s organizers hoped to take in approximately 76 kindergartners in its first year from the communities it will serve: Cumberland, Central Falls, Lincoln and Pawtucket.
“This is a tremendous leap forward for education reform in Rhode Island,” said McKee, who is also the chairman of RIMA’s Board of Directors. “We are thrilled to begin the important work of closing the achievement gap and giving the students of Blackstone Valley, and our state, a high-quality education that will prepare them for college and beyond.”
McKee has been talking of a need to improve access to high-quality education locally and throughout the state, drawing praise from various charter school and education reform advocates, while being criticized by some in public education union circles for what they say is an effort to circumvent prevailing wage rules and other regulations. The mayoral academy would be overseen by a governing board, of which McKee would be a member.
RIMA’s chief executive officer, meanwhile, will be Michael Magee, who until recently has been serving as director of Cumberland’s Office of Children, Youth and Learning (OCYL), an educational arm of the town’s municipal government introduced by McKee. Jeremy Chiappetta, former assistant principal of Providence’s Oliver Hazard Perry Middle School, will be the founding head of the school.
“Jeremy is the kind of leader that our students in Central Falls, and throughout the state deserve,” Gallo was quoted as saying in a RIMA statement Thursday. “I have had the chance to directly supervise his work in Providence, and over the past two years I have closely followed his career. I am confident that we will be able to work together to do whatever it takes to prepare our young people for success in college and beyond.”
Both schools’ handlers said they planned on beginning the application and enrollment processes for their schools, with the RIMA statement noting that the application deadline would be Friday, June 26 with a drawing to be conducted on June 30 at 7 p.m. in the Blackstone River Theater on Broad Street in Cumberland. Garcia, meanwhile, said that volunteers were being sought to help get Segue ready to roll, as there was much work to be done. He said he hoped that Segue and other initiatives like it would give education in Rhode Island a shot in the arm.
“We want to up the ante,” Garcia said. “This is only the beginning. We haven’t even kicked off yet.”

Times Statehouse reporter Jim Baron contributed reporting to this story.

By VINAYA SAKSENA