Riverhead Charter School

Riverhead Charter school is serving a community the school district has failed. The district responds with misinformation designed to stoke fears and kill school choice.

Emotions ran high at a contentious public hearing Tuesday night on a proposed expansion by the Riverhead Charter School—which has submitted an application to the New York State Department of Education to revise its charter and increase its enrollment capacity from 787 to 1,037 students over the next two years.

The charter school seeks to expand its maximum enrollment from 787 to 1.037 students in grades K-9 over the next two years.

Riverhead Charter School physical education teacher Robert Cook has been honored with a national “all-star teacher” award from Project Fit America, creators of an innovative fitness education program brought to local schools by Peconic Bay Medical Center.

The State Department of Transportation will undertake a new study to look at ways to improve safety on Middle Country Road near the Riverhead Charter School, State Senator Ken LaValle said today.

Riverhead Charter School superintendent Raymond Ankrum dons a bright orange vest every morning and afternoon and walks into traffic on Middle Country Road in front of his school campus in Calverton. Ankrum starts and ends the school day at the K8 school working as a traffic control officer.

The proposed expansion is "an organic concept," the charter school principal said. It would provide the opportunity for existing charter school students to continue their education in the charter school.

The Calverton K-8 school is requesting state approval to add grades nine and 10, as well as to increase enrollment from 500 to 787 in the fourth and fifth years of its current five-year charter, which runs through 2022. It would add grades 11 and 12 in the following two years.

Charter schools have opened the way for wider acceptance of school choice and the "no excuse" college prep schools for low-income kids.

Speakers praised the availability of a non-tuition-based alternative to the public schools in Riverhead. Others spoke of the positive experiences their children have had and the ways they've benefitted from the education environment offered at the charter school.