NEW: 9 New Innovation Schools will Open in Central Mass

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Meghan Ottolini, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Funding is part of the Innovation Schools Iniative

Governor Deval Patrick announced today that with $90,000 in grants, 9 new Innovation Schools are slated to open in Central Massachusetts.

The funding supports the Innovation School Initiative, which creates charter-like public schools within districts. Curriculum, staffing, and budgets are all more flexible at Innovation Schools.

Each selected school will receive a grant of $10,000. The schools will be located in Auburn, Leominster, Worcester, Fitchburg, Marlborough, and Northborough, pending final approval from local school communities.

“This robust and diverse group of schools demonstrates what can be achieved when local school communities are given the flexibility to be creative in their approach to helping students achieve at high levels,” said Governor Patrick.

“With today’s announcement, we look forward to the development of potential new Innovation School as we strengthen our education system in Massachusetts,” said Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray.

Many of the schools could open by September, 2012. There are currently 18 Innovation Schools across the state, including the Chandler Magnet School and University Park Campus School, both in Worcester.

The complete list of Worcester potential Innovation Schools includes STEM Academy for Middle School Engineers (Auburn), McKay Campus School/Fitchburg Arts Academy (Fitchburg), Center for Excellence (Leominster), Center for Technical Education Innovation (Leominster), STEM/21st Century Elementary School (Marlborough), Worcester East Middle Academy of Science, Technology and Health (Worcester), Lincoln Street School (Worcester), Worcester Technical High School STEM Early College (Worcester), and Algonquin Personal Pathways in STEM (APPS) (Northborough-Southborough).