Blackstone Valley Prep

Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy has won a $450,000 grant from Next Generation Learning Challenges, an advocacy group focused on increasing the use of technology to improve public education, to open its first high school.

Blackstone Valley Prep, a mayoral academy based in Cumberland, will receive $2.2 million from the Charter School Growth fund to help pay for a planned expansion. Blackstone Valley Prep currently runs two elementary schools and a middle school, serving students from Cumberland, Central Falls, Pawtucket and Lincoln.

Standardized testing is underway in Rhode Island public schools, where students take the New England Common Assessment Program or NECAP every October. The tests of math and reading are administered to grades 3-8 and 11 between October 1st and the 23rd. This year some 4,000 12th graders are also taking the test and must improve their scores to meet the state’s controversial new test-based graduation requirement.

Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy said it’s thrilled the state’s Board of Education has renewed its charter for another five years. The charter school will operate three schools in the coming school year, serving students in Lincoln, Cumberland, Central Falls and Pawtucket. Blackstone Valley Prep’s Jen LoPiccolo said the Board of Education cleared the way for expansion of up to seven schools.

Blackstone Valley Prep has received the go-ahead from state officials to continue operating for another five years and more than double the number of schools it runs around the state.

Blackstone Valley Prep, a charter school, currently operates two elementary schools in Cumberland and a middle school in Lincoln. Plans call for a high school to open this fall at a location still to be determined.

Environmental advocates gathered at the Statehouse Wednesday to protest legislation that would roll back restrictions that prevent schools from building on toxic sites.

Public schools in Rhode Island planned to operate under normal schedules today in spite of the winter weather.