Students, families and educators filled the playing field across from the Marblehead Community Charter Public School on Tuesday, Sept. 2, to launch the school’s 30th year.
Students lined up by grade, fourth through eighth, and waited for eighth graders Ana Sophia Lincoln and Daphne Bayle Ozuna to ring a bell and call out, “Navigators, lead the way!” Then, students ran through a paper banner that read “Cheers to 30 years!” and into the school.
Educators lined the path, cheering with pom-poms, before everyone gathered inside for a community meeting.
Origin story
MCCPS started in 1995, part of the first group of charter schools to open in the state.
School business manager Jeff Barry has been with MCCPS since the beginning and remembers those early days.
“It was amazing,” he told the Current in an interview at the school. “We were out on the frontier, planting a flag for education reform.”
Barry said MCCPS was started “by a group of teachers who were passionate about needing choice and alternatives in public education.”
Other goals of MCCPS were — and remain — “to make teachers the leaders of the school, focus on project-based learning, full inclusion and integration of all the disciplines (science, art, math, language, music) … all culminating in exhibitions,” explained Head of School Stephanie Brant.
Charter holds three exhibitions a year, when students present projects based on what they’ve learned during the trimester.
“The highest level of retention is when a student can teach what they’ve learned to someone else — that’s the purpose of exhibition,” Barry explained. “Kids are doing presentations on the Vietnam War to Vietnam vets,” he offered as an example.
Parents weigh in
Parents Kevin Rockett and Bernadette McDermott dropped off their fourth grader Tuesday morning.
“We wanted to give Charter a try after the Brown School,” McDermott said.
Katy Reynolds’ daughter also started fourth grade at Charter, coming from the Devereux School.
“It seemed like a more natural, easier transition,” she said. “We love all the arts and music, and the smaller size.”
Starting in fourth grade, Charter students have Spanish twice a week, music twice a week, physical education twice a week, one 90-minute art class per week, and two recesses every day.
The school has 230 students, its cap. Students are chosen by lottery and come from about a dozen North Shore towns.
Berta Manushi, of Swampscott, has a seventh grader at Charter and her son already graduated.
“Compared to other public schools, we like the small community — and the exhibitions,” she said.
Student leaders
Eighth-grader Larkin Smith has been at MCCPS since fourth grade.
“Charter has a community vibe,” Smith said. “I’ve learned every single kid in the school by name and personality. When I was in fourth grade, I had a mentor in seventh grade. Now I’m a mentor. At Charter, you get the chance to be a leader in your community.”
Smith’s younger sister, Pender, is in fifth grade.
“I like the independence that we have,” she said. “They rely on us and we get to be leaders and learn from each other. I also like the projects that we do.”
Time capsule
Charter is planning a 30th anniversary celebration this spring with a gala. It will also open a time capsule buried at the school when it opened.
School leadership wants to renovate an 8,500 square-foot space that’s currently being used as a warehouse. That will require fundraising.
Asked if MCCPS would ever consider adding a high school, Brant said, “The demand is there. People are sad to leave in the eighth grade and disheartened with the choices for high school, especially for girls.”
Brant said Charter offers students an “incredible opportunity to build skills and confidence. They can try new things and fail, and learn from their mistakes. We see kids taking academic risks here.”
She added, “The school culture and climate with staff and students is incredibly strong. This is a really happy place to be, whether you’re working here or are a student here.”
