Barnstable Community Innovation School Opening for the 2019-2020 School Year

The Barnstable Community Innovation School is the new K-3 elementary school in Barnstable School district opening for the 2019-2020 school year.  In February, the School Committee approved the establishment of the Barnstable Community Innovation School.  The school will be located in the current Barnstable Community Horace Mann Charter School (BCHMCPS) that will be closing in June. 

The Innovation School will be keeping many of the programs and characteristics that made BCHMCPS special with some key changes in governance and accountability to the district.  The new school will still be a school of choice, welcoming students in kindergarten through grade 3 from all seven villages in the Town of Barnstable.  The class sizes will be comparable to other elementary schools within the district.  The school will maintain autonomy in selecting curriculum materials and programs to best meet the needs of the students.  Enrichment clusters will be held every winter that are incredible learning experiences for the students. 

The Barnstable Community Innovation School will be a district school under the Superintendent and School Committee, rather than a Board of Trustees and the state charter school oversight.  As a district school, the students will benefit from increased resources available to all Barnstable Public School students.  The school’s “innovation” will be Project Based Learning.  This teaching approach makes learning come alive for students.  Students will develop important 21^st Century skills of critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, creativity, and innovation.

Registration is now open for kindergarten through grade 3 at the Barnstable Community Innovation School.  Please visit www.barnstable.k12.ma.us. Children from all seven villages in Barnstable are welcomed to enroll. There is a pre-registration deadline of April 8, 2019.  Should more students pre-register than there is room for, the school will hold a public lottery on April 9, 2019. Students currently enrolled at BCHMCPS will become students of the Barnstable Community Innovation School.  Their siblings will be guaranteed enrolment if their registration is completed by April 8, 2019. The school is accepting transfer requests for students currently attending other Barnstable elementary schools.  Interested families may email innovationschool@mybps.us for more information.   There will be Open Houses on March 5^th and March 26^th from 5:30-7:00PM at the school located at 165 Bearses Way, Hyannis. 

I want to thank the Innovation School Planning Committee for all the hard work and effort they put into the application and plan for this school.  The Committee was made up of BCHMCPS teachers, staff, and parents along with a School Committee member, Superintendent and district Principal.  The teachers and staff members started meeting over the summer of 2018 and continued to meet in an official capacity regularly throughout the first five months of the school year.  The Barnstable Community Innovation School really is the vision of the educators for keeping what they loved at their school and making the necessary changes to make this a great choice for Barnstable elementary aged students.

Meg