Woonsocket’s new mayoral academy sets opening day

RHODE ISLAND'S LATEST MAYORAL ACADEMY, RISE Prep Mayoral Academy in Woonsocket, set its opening for Aug. 31. The school begins with kindergarten in the coming academic year and will eventually grow up to include eighth grade.
RHODE ISLAND'S LATEST MAYORAL ACADEMY, RISE Prep Mayoral Academy in Woonsocket, set its opening for Aug. 31. The school begins with kindergarten in the coming academic year and will eventually grow up to include eighth grade.

WOONSOCKET – RISE Prep Mayoral Academy, an “intentionally diverse” college preparatory, public charter school will open with at least 55 kindergartners on Aug. 31, the school announced Thursday.

The new school, approved by the R.I. Department of Education on June 9, will serve students and families in Woonsocket, Burrillville, and N. Smithfield at 1 Social St. downtown. The charter school will grow one grade a year until it reaches Grade 8. The capacity is for 81 students total and enrollment is still being accepted, said Katelyn Silva, chief communications officer for the Providence-based Rhode Island Mayoral Academies.

To date, 41 students have enrolled from Woonsocket, nine from Burrillville and five from North Smithfield. There is a waiting list of 25 Woonsocket students, Silva said.

RISE Prep has signed a multi-year lease on the two lower levels of the Innovation Plaza. The building is in a central downtown location accessible to the three communities, near local businesses, across from a YMCA, and offers parking for staff and families. RISE Prep is investing about $400,000 to renovate the empty two floors.

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“RISE Prep is excited to make downtown Woonsocket its home,” said Rosalind Murphy, head of school. “There’s ample room for our culture-building events, including weekly community circles in which we will build a positive school culture and develop core values. The layout will allow for larger classrooms for both whole-group and small-group instruction, as well as classroom libraries and reading centers to foster our scholars’ love of reading.”

RISE Prep is a tuition-free, public mayoral academy designed eventually to educate kindergarten through Grade 8 students in a structured learning environment.

“I am pleased that the academy has chosen Woonsocket to call home,” said Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, who is also a RISE Prep board member. “This new educational opportunity is also beneficial from an economic development standpoint.”

Woonsocket parent Michelle Grenon said the school that her daughter Kaitlynn will attend will revitalize the city downtown.

“It’s great that an alternate option to traditional public education is available at such an impressionable age level,” she said. “My child has such greatness inside her, and RISE Prep will help make that greatness blossom.”

Rhode Island mayoral academies also include Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy in Cumberland, comprising two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school; and the Achievement First Providence Mayoral Academy.

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