School board OKs new charter school
Vote is unanimous to approve proposal for New Village Academy, a nonprofit high school founded by county executive’s sister
The Anne Arundel County Board of Education unanimously approved a proposal last week to open a new charter high school in Annapolis.
New Village Academy, a nonprofit school for ninth through 12th grade, was founded by Romey Pittman, a former Annapolis High School educator and the sister of County Executive Steuart Pittman.
Pittman, a 25-year veteran in public and charter schools, said New Village will work to address what she calls the “engagement cliff ” that occurs between the early years of education and high school, when research shows students begin to feel less engaged in school.
“We need a high school that addresses equity by putting student agency at the center, that breaks down a wall to school to connect student learning to real life and uses the science of motivation as a playbook in designing learning structures and assessments,” Pittman said.
New Village Academy is set to open in fall 2024 with 150 students. It will operate with small class sizes with each student part of a 14-member “crew” with an advisor who stays with them all four years.
The school is in negotiations to lease space in the Westfield Annapolis Mall. Construction will be funded in part through a $215,000 grant from NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit that donates money to early-stage entrepreneurs who are “reimagining public education,” according to its website.
Though that money will not cover the entire project, which is projected to cost between $3 to $5 million, Pittman said it will help cover facility design, marketing and legal expenses.
Pittman also pointed to goals of closing racial, ethnic, and economic opportunity gaps in the county. At the school board meeting Aug. 23, Pittman called her planned school “an incubator for innovation,” especially in implementing Blueprint for Maryland’s Future standards for college and career readiness.
The idea is to take students into the community and use hands-on projects to teach them core skills they need such as math, history, science and literacy.
Superintendent of Schools Mark Bedell expressed his support for New Village Academy because it aims to include communities that need more attention than the school district may provide.
While Maryland law requires a charter school’s lottery to be available to every family in the county, Pittman is exploring ways to make enrollment more attractive to families with lower incomes, specifically in the Annapolis area.
“I also know that we have pockets inside the school district where we are just not getting it done,” Bedell said. “So, when somebody comes to me and they present a model that I think will be a value-add and will make the outcomes and the opportunities a reality for children who may be struggling because they’re not able to thrive under their current conditions, I think we have a responsibility to take a deep look at that.”
A charter school is a publicly funded school authorized to operate through a contract with the Board of Education and is available to parents deciding where to enroll their students.
Board of Education President Joanna Bache Tobin, who represents
District 6, has been working for a charter school accreditation consulting group for over a decade. Charter schools were developed with the idea that they could be “laboratories” for different educational models, Tobin said.
“New Village Academy is starting very small, which I think — given its structure and the students that they want to attract — is a good thing,” Tobin said. “As [superintendent] Bedell said, if they’re meeting the needs of students that we’re not currently meeting the needs of, then we can learn from that as well.”
Pittman started her career as an educator in 1989 teaching at Suitland High School in Prince George’s County for about four years. In 1998, she helped found Fairhaven School in Upper Marlboro, where she taught history, math, Latin and German until 2004 before moving into other work with charter schools.
Pittman returned to the traditional classroom at Annapolis High School in 2019 after her brother was elected into his first term as county executive in 2018.
During last week’s school board meeting, members asked how students would be transported to the school.
Darius Stanton, president of the New Village Academy’s governing board, said Westfield Mall, where the school will be based, is a hub for county and city buses.
Due to the school’s small size, Pittman said it would have been financially prohibitive for the school to pay for extra transportation services to bus students.
“Even though we don’t have full coverage across the county, it’s not bad if you compare it with other magnet programs and charters in terms of how kids can access it,” Pittman said of using public transportation.
Despite those concerns, the county school board unanimously approved Bedell’s recommendation to approve Pittman’s application. The next steps are for the school system to work closely with Pittman to establish a lottery and solidify a location to host the school’s operations.