Dear Friends of the Charter School,
As we enter our 27th year, the Charter School continues to provide dynamic learning opportunities in a supportive environment for our students. We continue to work collaboratively to ensure that the school remains faithful to our mission while the pillars of Trust, Respect, Freedom, Democracy, Cooperation, and Responsibility remain a cornerstone of our school community. It is also important to note that the school has an actively engaged Board of Trustees. We celebrate cultural diversity, are environmentally conscious, and our program serves the mental and physical health of all students. Everything we do is for the betterment of the student, and by extension, our community.
In many ways, the 2022-2023 school year was a return to normalcy after the unprecedented effects of the global pandemic. In an effort to maximize hands-on, project-based learning in a multi-aged setting, we introduced an Experiential Learning program in 2020 that connected our Middle School students to community partners across Martha’s Vineyard. This year, the program solidified authentic partnerships with more than a dozen island organizations.
Beginning in our K-4 classrooms, the habits of mind for project-based collaboration take root, and our incredible staff cultivates an inquiry-based curriculum that fosters high achievement and forward-thinking young students. These students are made ready for the incredible experiences ahead in the 5th-8th grade. It goes without saying that the foundation our K-4 teachers create yields great thinking and self-advocacy, which is a necessity in this dynamic world.
In June, we saw the graduation of our first-ever International Baccalaureate program cohort, with students in both the Diploma and Career Programs. The enhanced rigor of our academic curriculum seems to have had a demonstrable effect on the acceptance of our students to their first-choice colleges and gap year programs.
Additionally, our love for music and drama remains central to our mission. In the spring, the school play included 70-plus students from grades K-12. And, our strings program has more than doubled in the past two years.
This is a critical moment for the Charter School. Last year, we gathered as a community to celebrate 26 years of offering innovative educational opportunities on Martha’s Vineyard. As we put the struggles of the pandemic behind us, we look forward to a new phase in the history of the school.
With comprehensive plans to expand our physical space once more, we have launched a $5.2M Capital Campaign, Beyond the Classroom. Expansion includes two modest additions to the main school building and a new, separate multipurpose building, the “Barn.”
These new spaces will go a long way in supporting the school’s dynamic curriculum and programs. The project will not only meet a variety of practical, educational, and extracurricular needs of our students and families beyond the classroom, it will also enable us to serve and engage the broader community in new ways.
We invite you to learn more about our exciting plans in the following pages—and we hope you will be inspired to support us with a gift to the campaign! Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the project or the campaign.
Pete Steedman, Ed. D
Director, MVPCS | President, OIE
508-693-9900 | president.oie.mv@gmail.com