What is a Charter School?
Charter schools are public schools overseen by a Board of Trustees and accountable to the New Hampshire Board of Education and Department of Education. In exchange for this approval and oversight, charter schools are designed to operate with freedom from some of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools.
The ‘charter’ establishing each school is a performance contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. Charters are granted for a term of five years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school’s contract. Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor, usually the state or local school board, to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. In exchange for this accountability, charter schools have the freedom to choose the methods and processes they believe will best help the school deliver results.
Innovative teaching practices and strategies, class structure and other academic tools can be used and tested and then quickly modified to meet the needs of the student population. Since the initiative to start a charter school can come from a wide variety of entities – parents, teachers, community/business leaders, entrepreneurs and school districts, for example – there typically is significant community involvement and support.
Who we Are
It’s said that Great Bay Charter School is like a Family. Many students report to us that they felt anonymous or disconnected at their previous school. With the goal of personalizing the educational experience for each student, GBCS has created many structures to make each student’s experience as personalized and meaningful as possible.
Our Mission
The Great Bay Charter School will provide an engaging, respectful, accepting learning environment enriched with flexible, project-based options in support of student with diverse needs and interests as they navigate their personalized path to college and career readiness, participatory citizenship and service to others.
