The Valley Breeze

Mayoral Academies students chosen

By MARCIA GREEN, Valley Breeze Editor

mgreen@valleybreeze.com

CUMBERLAND - The lives of 76 little boys and girls - the college class of 2026 - took off in a new direction Tuesday evening at the Blackstone River Theatre.

They were the lucky ones whose names were pulled from brass bingo drums during a lottery used to fill the first-ever class of the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies called Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley.

Parents and their kindergartners filled the theater eager to learn if they'd be among the first to enroll.

One mom openly prayed at her seat, others clasped hands and hugged children as all 76 names were first pulled from the drums then opened and read aloud by Democracy Prep Harlem founder Seth Andrew and the school's first head of school Jeremy Chiapetta. The two took turns, easily pronouncing the many Hispanic names, and grinning at their new students.

A grandmother leaped up from her seat weeping when her grandchild's name was called.

There were screams and cheers from the lucky ones, while those left behind on a waiting list forced a smile at reassurances that at least some will be enrolled by September.

Mia Youseff was one of the night's winners. She'll be traveling to Valley Falls next fall instead of Pawtucket's Curvin-McCabe public school.

Her mom, Paula Youseff, a native of Lebanon, said she filled out the application after someone knocked on her door and told her about the school.

She likes the idea of a smaller class and loves the uniforms, she said.

Through the luck of the draw, Corine and Paul Assaf of Cumberland are sending son E'tienne to Democracy Prep instead of the B.F. Norton School. "My friend called me," Mrs. Assaf said. "This is my chance to do something better for him and that's important."

Chris and Joyce Butler thought their little Amelia would thrive at Democracy Prep.

"I love the idea of accountability. 'Grow as you go' sounds like a good motto to me. It's important for her to be in a place that feels like community where teachers selected are paid for performance, not because they have tenure. I think it's a great opportunity."

But in the end, they were among the disappointed, wait-listed with 40 or so ahead of them.

Buntings from a dozen or more colleges decorated the Blackstone River Theatre Tuesday, just as homerooms at the Harlem school celebrate the nation's universities.

Andrew told those assembled, "We're about to open one of the best schools in the state. I am really excited to make it possible for your children to get a rigorous, quality school in the Blackstone Valley.

"When you walk across the stage and get your college diplomas as the class of 2026, little will remember it all started with these bingo drums in 2009," he said.

Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee began talking about a new kind of charter school in January of 2007, just after taking office for his third term. He'd tried before to work with the public schools, he said, but couldn't achieve the reform he envisioned.

"What if we started from scratch?" he asked back then.

Tuesday evening, two and one-half years later, he was greeting the first children of the start-from-scratch school.

The eight teachers for this school, based at the Our Lady of Fatima parish, are being hired now.

Although their union leaders vigorously opposed this school, Andrew said 100 teachers turned up for a job fair on short notice last month and 400 more have indicated interest through the school's Web site.

Teachers will be paid their public school salary plus 10 percent. There's another 10 percent available for high performance, Andrew said, as well as generous compensation for handling extracurricular activities. Mayoral Academies teachers give up the universally accepted right to tenure and enrollment in the state pension plan.

Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley is patterned on Democracy Prep Harlem, the high-achieving school of 100 percent disadvantaged and minority students that Andrew founded three years ago.

Andrew announced Tuesday that his 8th-graders just achieved a 98 percent proficiency on the New York math exam.

Andrew contends that his Harlem school demonstrates there's no excuse for low test scores among the disadvantaged students of public schools.

Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley, already called DPBV by its organizers, is the first school that will open under the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies umbrella that was originated by McKee and resident Michael Magee, first director of the town's Office of Children Youth and Learning.

Magee is now RIMA's executive director, and his daughter, Fiona, was among the Cumberland names pulled from the bin.

Also joining the men for the drawing Tuesday was Lincoln's Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond, and state Rep. Kenneth Vaudreuil, who filed the legislation that won General Assembly permission last year and funding this year.

While the Harlem school began with middle school grades, the Blackstone Valley school is beginning with 76 kindergartners.

They won't be the first to graduate, however, because leaders hope to open a middle school in 2010.

While Cumberland's mayor was the driving force behind the school, middle-class Cumberland families were the most disappointed Tuesday evening.

Of the 58 from Cumberland who applied, 36 were left on the waiting list.

This school, that will serve Pawtucket, Central Falls, Cumberland and Lincoln, offered 19 seats for each community. Of those, about 52 percent, or 10 each, were reserved for lower income children in order to reflect the demographic of the overall community.

As it happened, just eight families applied from Lincoln and all were admitted. That town's remaining 11 seats were split among the other three communities through a system that gave Cumberland a total of 22 seats. Pawtucket and Central Falls got 23 seats each.

Central Falls had 24 apply, so just one was wait-listed. Pawtucket had 41 apply, so 18 didn't make it.

Andrew said that in Harlem, 300 applied for the original 100 seats. The second year, 800 applied and the third year saw 1,500 seeking just 80 openings.

"You have the best odds you'll ever have this year," he told parents.

He said of Lincoln's underwhelming response, "This is probably the last year that will happen."

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