LYNN — The Jean Charles Academy (JCA) will open for the 2021-22 school year following approval from the School Committee last Thursday night.
As a dual-language private school, the JCA is designed to meet the needs of students of color by building a racially-equitable curriculum and school culture within an inclusive, dual-language education program.
Founded by Nakia Navarro, the new Lynn school, located at 498 Essex St., will begin enrolling up to 50 students from grades Pre-K to 7 — with plans to serve up to 125 students in grades Pre-K through 12. It will focus on recruiting students from underserved communities such as Lynn, Chelsea, Revere, Everett and East Boston.
“I’m excited the City of Lynn is getting a new education option that prioritizes Black youth and offers a dual-language program,” said Nicole Mcclain, president of the North Shore Juneteenth Association, Inc.
Jean Charles Academy said its mission is to promote biliteracy, bilingualism, and biculturalism for students. The school will provide an interdisciplinary education with an emphasis on holistic learning and critical-thinking skills.
“The JCA model will teach students key elements of social-emotional learning, have college preparatory practices embedded throughout, and provide hands-on opportunities for students via experiential, project-based learning that makes what they are learning, particularly complex math and science concepts, relevant to their lives,” Navarro said.
Jean Charles Academy said it aims to reimagine public education by building schools that are designed to meet the needs of students of color, diversifying the teaching profession by hiring and retaining teachers with diverse backgrounds, and ensuring that faculty is representative of the diversity of enrolled students.
“We believe it is important that students see themselves in the adults who are teaching them day-to-day and who are leaders of the school — whose diversity is representative of the diversity of enrolled students, including language diversity,” said Navarro.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Tutwiler said he reviewed the proposed curriculum framework at the JCA and confirmed that students would receive at least the same academic content, skills and knowledge as a Lynn Public Schools student.
“The academy intends to follow the common core state standards and next-generation science standards as we do,” Tutwiler said. “They’ve also established a means to assess student learning and growth.”
Tutwiler said he interviewed Navarro to gain a larger scope of the school’s plans and curriculum and he recommended the approval of the academy to the School Committee last week.
The JCA is named after Navarro’s parents, who were both born and raised in South Carolina where they attended segregated schools and believed in the power of education to elevate one’s circumstances and enrich one’s life.
The school will provide its teachers with strategies to build racially-equitable classrooms, while ensuring a curriculum that is inclusive and reflective of the student populations.
Tuition for JCA is based on fundraising, and the school said it hopes to provide families with a $25-per-week tuition schedule, but accepted families will not be turned away if they are unable to cover the cost of the program.
The JCA said its dual-language model is based on research that has shown high rates of academic success in both English and the native languages of English language learners.
Navarro, who is also the CEO and founder of a local youth-support organization called Building Audacity, is one of the 14 members of the JCA founding board made up of current or former educators with an average of 20 years’ teaching experience.
The majority of the founding board members are people of color, half are bilingual, and some have experience in assisting the creation of a charter school or in operating a dual-language program.
More information and application forms in English and Spanish can be found on the school’s website at www.jeancharlesacademy.org.