BUILDING BLOCKS
Addition construction begins at Blackstone Valley Prep Middle School Lincoln campus
LINCOLN — Construction has started on a 4,000-square-foot addition at Blackstone Valley Prep’s Middle School campus in Lincoln, expected to open in time for the start of the school year next fall.
The charter school currently leases the former Fairlawn Elementary School at 3 Fairlawn Way in Lincoln, which is home to one of BVP’s two middle schools. Besides the addition, BVP is also renovating existing bathrooms, installing a central HVAC system and making parking modifications to increase efficiency, according to BVP Chief Operating Officer Michael DeMatteo.
The addition will include four classrooms and two breakout spaces.
“The footings for the foundation are already in the ground and we’re hoping to have the steel up before Christmas,” said DeMatteo.
DeMatteo says the new addition will meet the needs of a slightly higher student population projected next year, allowing the Midde School 2 in Lincoln to matriculate 50 additional scholars coming in from the BVP’s Elementary School 3 in Cumberland.
The entire project is expected to be substantially completed by next summer and ready for occupancy in September.
The initial construction was paid for with school capital funds, buy the bulk of the project will be financed.
At a recent meeting, the Lincoln Town Council amended the lease agreement the town has with Blackstone Valley Prep, which will allow BVP to finance the new addition and associated renovations.
“This is a major renovation project and in order for them to do that there will be financing that needs to be in place,” Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto told the council. “The amendments allow BVP to engage in that financing.”
“The security interest will only be for their lease holder interest in the property and not the town’s ownership,” he added. “That means if BVP defaults on their
loans the default goes to BVP and not the town. So, the amendment would allow the town to enter into that lease but still protect the town.”
Blackstone Valley Prep opened in 2009 with 76 kindergarteners, and has since grown to 1,800 students across three elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. The network’s charter allows it to grow to nearly 2,400 students.
BVP was Rhode Island’s first “mayoral academy,” a special type of regional charter school written into state law in 2008 and overseen by a board of mayors representing the communities where its students live. The new charter structure was part of the state’s strategy in its successful Race to the Top application.
Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee, then-mayor of Cumberland, one of the more affluent of the four communities, led the effort to create the new model after being tapped by the Rhode Island Foundation to look at a regional approach.
Last week, Blackstone
Valley Prep posted strong academic results in the recently released results of the 20182019 administration of the SAT and the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) assessments for 11th grade and grades 3-8 respectively.
On the SAT, BVP outperformed the state and national averages, with an average score of 977 versus 957 in Rhode Island and 973 nationally. Moreover, in looking at subgroup data, BVP students from low-income backgrounds – 70 percent of its high school population – outperformed their like peers statewide with scores of 969 versus 859.
On the RICAS, BVP outperformed the state proficiency averages in both English Language Arts (49 vs. 39) and mathematics (49 vs. 30) by double digits, despite serving a much higher percentage of students from low-income backgrounds than the state population. Indeed, BVP students from low-income backgrounds outperformed like peers statewide by 20 points (43 vs. 23) in ELA and 26 points (42 vs. 16) in mathematics.
BVP is especially proud to celebrate the first results from its youngest school, Elementary School 3. In its first year of state testing, ES3 scored in the top 15 percent for all schools statewide in both ELA and mathematics. In addition, growth at both BVP middle schools was outstanding, with statistically significant growth in 5th and 7th grade for both ELA and mathematics.
“While there is much to celebrate, the reality is that we have a lot of really important work to do to achieve our mission to prepare every scholar for success in college and the world beyond,” said BVP CEO Jeremy Chiappetta. “These results are especially exciting considering that BVP is one of the lowest-funded school systems in Rhode Island, several thousand dollars per pupil below the state average.”