CAMBRIDGE — Two new charter schools set to open in Lawrence have received their official school charters.
Community Day Charter School officials accepted charters for the school's two new locations, which will both open in September 2012.
The charters were presented at a ceremony yesterday in Cambridge. Community Day Executive Director Sheila Balboni, on hand to accept the charters, thanked the district's teachers and parents for showing their support to get new schools Community Day schools opened in Lawrence.
"We're absolutely delighted and we're also very grateful to our parents who gave us such support over the years," Balboni said.
Community Day, located on Prospect Street, will open two additional Lawrence schools in the fall of 2012, eventually expanding to 400 students at each of the two locations by 2019.
Top education officials including Mitchell Chester, the state education commissioner, and Paul Reville, the state's secretary of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education handed out 16 new charters yesterday to school officials, representing the largest group of new charters since 1993.
"This is a tribute to the leadership in the schools," Reville said. "It's a commitment to innovation. It's a commitment to closing achievement gaps."
Community Day has a student waiting list of about 1,100 students. Balboni said she's excited about the new schools because Community Day will be able to offer more spots to students on the waiting list.
"That's the most fun of it all - that we'll be able to open our wait list and enroll some of our students on that wait list," Balboni said.
The two schools will each open with 120 students in kindergarten through second grade, eventually expanding to 400 students in 2019. The proposed names for the schools are Community Day Charter — South, and Community Day Charter — Riverside, although locations have not yet been identified.
The Community Group Inc. opened the school with 112 students in 1995 after finding success with the Community Day Care, which has operated in Lawrence since 1969. The charter school had 331 students in 2009-2010 in kindergarten through eighth grade, the same number since 2007.
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