Archive: Around Town

With an anticipated start date of September 9, 2009, New Roots Charter School in Ithaca is now enrolling students. For its inaugural year, the school will be open for 9th and 10th grades, capping at 125 students. 

The information sessions will introduce the New Roots Charter School staff, program, curriculum, and enrollment process to interested parents and teens.  The State University of New York Board of Trustees approved the New Roots Charter School application in September 2008. Charter schools are tuition-free and open to all students eligible to attend public schools. They are intended to provide public school choice and develop innovative new models of public education. New Roots is managed by its own school board and overseen by New York State.

Open to all students eligible to attend a public school in New York State, New Roots will be located in downtown Ithaca, with an extended campus that includes area farms, businesses, organizations, and natural lands.  The school's vision includes personalized attention and mentoring with an educational focus on sustainability, with the goal of preparing students to be community leaders who are part of the transition to a "green" economy.

New Roots is a small school that allows for greater personalized attention to all students. Students develop a close working relationship with a faculty mentor who supervises their academic progress and engagement. Courses are inquiry-oriented and problem-based. Students engage in extensive community-based service learning, in which they apply their learning to projects that support our community's transition to greater sustainability.

Addressing the idea that "sustainability" is another word for environmentalism, and that sustainability education will only appeal to a certain demographic, New Roots board chair Jason Hamilton says, "Sustainability is for everybody!  It's everybody's party, and everyone's a necessary part of the solution, or by definition what you have is not sustainable.  We need to develop the skills to collaborate with all people in order to address the pressing issues of our times.  This is what sustainability education is about, not the environment per se."

According to New Roots principal, Tina Nilsen-Hodges, "New Roots is actively reaching out to recruit students from all parts of the Ithaca area community.  Being part of a diverse, inclusive network of people is an experience that is essential to building communities that promote and sustain the wellbeing of everyone. We especially want to serve young people who will thrive in a smaller, community-oriented high school, and are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity for our local youth."

The school follows the Ithaca City School District yearly calendar, and busing will be available to the downtown campus. New Roots students will be required to meet New York State graduation requirements and take Regents exams. New Roots will offer concurrent enrollment classes for all students that will allow them to graduate having earned college credits from Tompkins Cortland Community College.

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