11th anniversary book 114 FINAL online - Flipbook - Page 262
LONG ISLAND / EDUCATION
Evergreen Charter School gets Regents’ OK to add sixth grade
Gil
founderFounder
and executive
director ofCharter
Circulo de
la Hispanidad,
Mr.Bernardino,
Gil Bernardino,
of Evergreen
School
on
the nonpro t that runs the Evergreen Charter School on Peninsula Blvd. in
Peninsula Boulevard, Hempstead, is shown on Monday, March 21,
Hempstead, is shown on Monday, March 21, 2016. Photo Credit: Newsday /
2016, celebrating the Regent’s approval to add a sixth grade.
John Paraskevas
By Víctor Manuel Ramos
victor.ramos@newsday.com @vmramos
Updated March 21, 2016 7:07 PM
Evergreen Charter School in Hempstead won unanimous approval Monday from the state Board of Regents to add
the sixth grade and increase kindergarten enrollment.
The Regents board, which sets education policy for the state, voted Monday afternoon to approve expansion of the
school’s charter. Earlier, a Regents committee also voted unanimously in favor.
“This is a tremendously historic moment,” said Gil Bernardino, founder and executive director of the nonpro t
Círculo de la Hispanidad, which created the Evergreen school. “It means a lot, because those students will have a
much better future — and not just for this graduation class but for many others, for many years to come.”
The decision to expand, he said, was prompted by the interest of families whose children attend the school and a
waiting list of “about 250 students.” The school will add two sixth-grade classes and a kindergarten class, with 25
students in each for a total of 75 new students next school year.
Evergreen, which opened in 2009 and has 300 students in kindergarten through fth grade, is one of two charter
schools in Hempstead, each of which seeks to offer an alternative to the struggling public school system.
“They’re doing a more than adequate job, and they’re certainly doing better than the [Hempstead] district,” said
Roger Tilles of Great Neck, Long Island’s representative on the Regents board. Tilles, as a member of the panel’s P12 Committee, had seconded the motion in favor of the expansion during the earlier vote.
“With all the multiple problems in that district,” he added, the Evergreen school represents “an option” to the
district-run public schools. “I’m hoping now the district will solve its problems and parents won’t be pressured to
seek alternative education.”
259