Global Learning has big plans as New Bedford's first charter school marks 20 years

NEW BEDFORD — The opening of school this year officially marked two decades since Global Learning Charter Public School opened its doors with ambitions of offering a unique educational experience unlike anything New Bedford — or much of the world — had ever seen.

The year was 2002. GLCPS, the city's first charter school, had been given approval to open up within New Bedford Public Schools' Paul Rodrigues Administration Building for grades 6 to 8, with an enrollment of 248 students, as a Horace Mann charter school, meaning it would function as part of the local public school district. Internet and computer access was not nearly as common as it is now, but many could foresee the prominence technology has in society today. Among them was New Bedford native Derek Stevens, the school's longtime technology director.

"This school was still just an idea," Stevens said of the time he signed on to work at GLCPS. "I had gone to New Bedford High, did well there; went to MIT, went to UCLA.... When I came back and heard about this school I just wanted to be part of it."

Initial GLCPS concept based on California school with New Bedford ties

Stevens says he was "sold on" the school's initial concept, which was to become a "High Tech High," modeled after the first such school founded in San Diego in 2000 by Gary Jacobs, son of New Bedford native, businessman and city benefactor Irwin Jacobs, who has since become namesake of NBPS' Jacobs Elementary School in the South End. Stevens says he also liked the idea of a lottery-based enrollment model, where any child in New Bedford stands an equal chance of selection.

"[High Tech High] took a a very aggressive approach to data-faced ways of instructing kids that might be different from how we were taught — so the model was big on project-based learning, big on using technology," Stevens said. "Now remember, this was '02 — there wasn't even a Facebook yet. So the idea that we were going to be in a city where many kids did not have technology at home, take a cross-section of kids from all around New Bedford and show we could educate any of them — that's what I signed up for."

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What's different about GLCPS?

The "project-based learning" referenced by Stevens is one of major features that sets GLCPS apart from more traditional schools. Three times a year, GLCPS students must engage in what is called a "presentation of learning" or POL, in which they present on a topic studied in class to an audience of peers, staff and community members.

GLCPS Home/School Liaison Cyndi Colson — another New Bedford native — says seeing students' growth through POLs and other means is one of the reasons she's been with the school since its beginning.

"You really get to see that progression where, in fifth grade they might be a little nervous but by 10th grade they're walking in there and being able to speak in front of anybody," Colson said. "That's what I love to see in our students: the growth in their confidence. ... We hear it all the time that when our kids walk into colleges or a new school, you can tell they're Global Learning Charter School kids."

Colson — who, like Stevens, has been with GLCPS since its start — began at the school as an office worker before becoming the first in her current position in 2005. "I'm the one to make phone calls, someone to do home visits, try to reach her parents during off-hours," she said.

According to Colson, with GLCPS' still relatively small enrollment of 500 for grades 5 to 12, another thing that sets it apart is the close-knit nature of the school community.

"One good thing about our school is we know all of our students. We know them by name when we see them at Shaw's or we see them at the mall. We're small and we know who they are," Colson said.

"I would say that what attracted me was the real belief that the school is doing the right thing," said GLCPS Director Dr. Stephen Furtado, who started his education career at Apponequet Regional High School in 1973 before coming to GLCPS in 2009 for what was originally intended to be a 90-day interim stay at the helm. "It is a family atmosphere. There's an awful lot we do behind the scenes that you can't do at bigger schools, class sizes are small, there's significant counseling, significant special education services, significant ELL [English language learner] services."

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Furtado noted that two years ago, GLCPS adopted a new model that designates time in ELL students' schedules for ELL-specific instruction. When asked if that was a relatively unique feature, he answered: "Quite."

"We're proud of that. That stuff doesn't just fall from the sky," Furtado said, pointing out that between 46 ELLs and 119 former ELLs, roughly one-third of GLCPS' student body did not have English as a first language.

Furtado said class size — which he estimates to be about 16 students on average — appears to be another main draw for the school.

Dual perspectives

Special education paraprofessional Kim Gallardo, now in her fifth year on staff at GLCPS, agrees that the school's sense of community is one of its definitive features. After all, she would know, as one of the school's former students for 5th through 11th grade before transferring to Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School.

"I still keep in touch with my class [from GLCPS]. We're always cheering each other on which I think is really nice. I can't remember many people from my graduating class at Voc — there was like 300 of them — but I remember those 20 kids," said Gallardo, who began attending GLCPS as a freshman in 2005 while it was still housed within New Bedford Public Schools' administration building, and remained through the school's move to its current location on Ashley Boulevard at the former St. Anthony of Padua School. "You get a lot of one-to-one attention from the staff, too, which, sometimes, when you're a kid, you don't want that, but as you get older you realize that's what makes this place really special, is that you do form those lifelong bonds."

In fact, one of those bonds can be directly credited for her working at GLCPS today, Gallardo said. "A lot of the teachers here stay in touch even after kids graduate or go somewhere else," she said, noting one of those teachers, for her, was current GLCPS Principal Lena Pires, who began at the school as a substitute teacher. "I was at home sleeping one day and Pires calls and is like, hey, can I trust you with a classroom of 24 students?

"Originally she hired me as a sub, and then the day that I came in she ripped up my application and said, 'No, you're applying for something else.' and I ended up a special ed paraprofessional for middle school."

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Having benefited from rides, meals and plenty of personable treatment by GLCPS staff when she was a student, Gallardo says now as a staff member herself, she strives to follow the example set for her.

"Now that I'm back here, I definitely try to be that person my students can confide in," she said.

Another former student, current GLCPS English language learner teacher Elizabeth Fernandes, describes similar experiences.

"One of my teachers from here who stayed in touch even after I left was checking up on me one day, asking what schools I was applying to ... and I told her I'd really fallen in love with Wheelock College," said Fernandes, who was part of GLCPS' first seventh grade class in 2002 before transferring to New Bedford High in ninth grade. "So when I told her that she was like, 'What? I went there! You have to let me write your recommendation letter!'"

Aside from the school's close-knit feel, Fernandes — who's worked in public, charter and private school settings — says she likes the fact that even as a new staff member last year, she was given the chance to have a say on issues that matter to her.

"At a lot of public schools ... there's always so many committees that make decisions on things like equity or student learning, but you're not able to join them unless you're a specialist or some type of administrator. Here, I'm on some of those committees, like the equity committee," Fernandes said. "I'm really passionate about equity in school, and then — being my first year here — being invited to be a part of that was like, wow."

GLCPS looks toward expansion

While construction and supply chain delays have pushed back the opening of GLCPS' new second building, Furtado says he's still hopeful for an opening in the current school year. "The project was supposed to be finished Aug. 1," he said. "I think if we're lucky, maybe it'll be ready between Christmas and New Year's, but we may be looking at early 2023."

Once opened, the former St. Anthony's convent structure — which sits adjacent to the main building — will serve as the new home to GLCPS' high school grade levels and as a creative space, with some help from the University of San Diego and Qualcomm, the wireless tech company founded by Irwin Jacobs.

"We were selected as the only school on the East Coast to be given a Thinkabit Lab from the University of San Diego and Qualcomm," Furtado said, noting 3D printers, precision wood-cutting machines and a kiln for ceramics are among the equipment that will be found in the new facility. "Kids are going to have significant hands-on experience developing and manufacturing things, running a business. It's amazing what kids are going to have at their fingertips."

In addition to expanding the campus for its own students, GLCPS also looks to make the new building a community space where any resident can benefit from the resources there off school hours.

Get the background: Global Learning moving into vacant St. Anthony's School

"One of the visions for it is that it will make us a more open campus where we will have people come in to use the facility and do hands-on, tech-based learning," Stevens said. "Families will come in and have a chance in our maker-space to be able to do things they may not have had access to otherwise. ... It's just something that hasn't really been here before."

With more space will come the potential for a bigger student enrollment — so long as the state approves. Relative to GLCPS' past requests to expand its allotted enrollment in recent years, that has not been the case. According to Furtado, GLCPS officials intend to submit a request to the state Department of Education by Nov. 1 to expand enrollment by 100 students, which would bring total enrollment to 600. It should be known by January whether the request is approved, Furtado said, noting the additional 100 students would be phased in over multiple years.

"With a waitlist of 200 to 300, we have families that continue to want to come here, so we're hoping the state will give us the OK this time," Furtado said.

GLCPS' current charter — effective through 2027 — was approved by the state last fall, and is the second consecutive five-year charter granted to GLCPS with no special conditions, Furtado said.

The school leader said he takes that as a positive message.

"Being given a five-year re-charter by the state with no conditions is almost unheard of," he said.

Through the years

• 1993: The Education Reform Act introduces a pathway for the creation of charter schools.

• 1997: Legislation is enacted to introduce Horace Mann charter schools — a hybrid model for charter schools that are considered part of the local public school district.

• 2002-2003: Global Learning Charter Public School opens for grades 6 to 8 as a Horace Mann charter school, in the Paul Rodrigues Administration Building on County Street, with an enrollment of 248. 

• 2003-2004: GLCPS adds Grade 5, diverting from its original plan to add Grade 9 in the school's second year.

• 2004-2005: Grade 9 is added. Enrollment grows to 279.

• 2005-2006: Grade 10 is added. Enrollment grows to 323.

• 2006-2007: Grade 11 is added.

• 2007-2008: Grade 12 is added. GLCPS moves into the former St. Anthony of Padua School in the North End and breaks its ties with New Bedford Public Schools. Enrollment grows to 385. The Board of Education approves an enrollment allotment of 500 students. 

• 2013-2014: Enrollment reaches 501.

• 2019-2020: New Bedford charter school City on a Hill closes, leaving GLCPS and Alma del Mar the only two remaining charter public schools in the city. 

• 2022-2023: GLCPS readies to open a second building on campus, with plans to apply for an enrollment allotment increase of 100 by Nov. 1, expecting an answer by January 2023.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Global Learning Charter School in New Bedford marks 20 years