Marlborough Charter School Expanding Footprint
For the Advanced Math & Science Public Academy Charter School in Marlborough, expansion is nothing new.
In 2004, the school started in one building with about 250 students in three grades. Each year since, the school has added another grade and more students.
It has ballooned to now offering seven grade levels, from sixth through 12th, in two buildings. Enrollment has hit a state-mandated cap of 966 students for the second year in a row. There is a 600-person waiting list, according to school Principal Richard Dineen.
To accommodate the growth, school officials are retrofitting about 10,000 square feet of additional classroom space in an adjacent building, which will provide enough room for 10 new computer science classrooms for the school's upper grade levels.
Teaching Tech
"Most schools don't teach computer science to every grade level, we do," said Barbara McGann, the school's executive director. "That requires more computer labs and more space."
Work has already begun on the expansion and officials hope for the classrooms to be ready by fall.
Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are autonomous from local school committee control; administrators within the schools create their own curriculum and negotiate their own salaries and benefits for workers.
The school is funded by a per-pupil allocation from the state, as well as through money paid from the home communities of the students attending the school. The school's core towns are Marlborough, Clinton, Hudson and Maynard, but students also come from more than 50 communities across Massachusetts. Students are accepted to the school through a lottery system.
Math and science curriculum offered at the school is, on average, about one to two years ahead of curriculum offerings at traditional public schools, according to Dineen.
The school has a 25-year lease to operate at its Forest Street campus. When the school opened six years ago, it only used one of the 38,000-square-foot buildings. Each year during the past four years, the school has added another grade level, while welcoming in a new class of sixth graders.
The school also occupies an adjacent 40,000-square-foot building on Forest Street in Marlborough.
The school is retrofitting an office building at 165 Forest St. to accommodate the 10,000-square-foot expansion. The building is owned by 201 Forest St. LLC. David DiPietre of Marlborough listed with the state as a manager for that LLC.
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