New Rock Hill charter school calls first week a success

Riverwalk Academy, York County’s newest public charter school, had its charter approved less than a year ago. In the last few months, organizers managed to put together a staff, register more than 240 students and even find a temporary home while they look for a permanent solution.

With five days complete, the school’s administrators report everything is going well.

“The first few days of school have been near perfect,” said principal Charlie French. “The children are having fun, the parents are pleased, the teachers are happy and learning is taking place.”

Riverwalk is using the former Trinity Christian School, across from St. Anne Catholic School and Church in Rock Hill. It’s the same space that York Preparatory Academy, Rock Hill’s other charter school, occupied during its first years after opening in 2010. Riverwalk is starting out as a kindergarten through fifth grade school but plans to add one additional grade each year.

Riverwalk’s instruction is focused around the concept of community and project-based-learning, said assistant principal Kelly Scott.

“It’s all about having (the students) take ownership of their learning,” she said.

Each day at Riverwalk starts with classes gathering for “community time,” to talk and get to know one another. In a second-grade classroom on Friday, a girl told her classmates that her mother was going to Michigan for a trip and that she was going to miss her.

This community time helps set up a team-based environment for the entire instructional day. By Friday, students in a first-grade classroom were already working together in collaborative groups like they’d been working that way for months.

“In the 21st century, you’re working in groups,” Scott said. “We want to infuse it from the very beginning.”

Kindergarten student Ohanna Watkins said she likes her new school because everyone is like a family. She said her favorite part of school so far has been dancing with her classmates.

While Ohana may be new to Riverwalk and to school in general, fifth-graders Lucy Curtis and Kyndall McManus also said they love coming to Riverwalk every day. McManus used to go to an elementary school in Rock Hill and Curtis was at another public charter school.

“We go by this thing called (project based learning),” McManus said. “It helps us go out in the world and learn more.”

At her old school, Curtis said, she had a hard time understanding concepts in class. But with Riverwalk’s focus on projects and experiments, she said she feels like she can keep up.

“I love it and it’s only been five days,” she said.

In addition to taking a different approach to instruction, Riverwalk also handles its schedule a little differently than traditional public schools. Each day includes an uninterrupted English/language arts block and an uninterrupted math block where students can “flex,” or go the grade level that best suits their skills, Scott said.

Riverwalk also dismisses students at 12:30 p.m. on Fridays so teachers can have professional development time every week.

“If we expect our kids to work collaboratively and work in teams, we have to expect our teachers to do the same,” Scott said.

Both Scott and French said the enthusiasm of the teachers and parents is palpable at Riverwalk. Some teachers took pay cuts to move to Riverwalk because they believe so much in project-based learning.

“They are true teachers at heart,” French said.

Teachers at charter schools are often paid less than at traditional public schools because charter schools receive state and federal funding, but no local money.

Over the next year, French said it is her goal to create relationships between Riverwalk and others in the community. Building relationships with community leaders and businesses fits into Riverwalk’s learning model.

“We hope to earn the respect of the community as a place that is doing a good job educating children and preparing them for their future,” French said.

This story was originally published August 23, 2014 at 9:44 PM with the headline "New Rock Hill charter school calls first week a success."