Dorchester Reporter | UP Academy network stages its first fundraiser gala – ‘Shine Dorchester’
By Seth Daniel, News Editor, Dorchester Reporter
The UP Academy network of Dorchester schools held its first-ever fundraising gala, Shine Dorchester, on Thurs., May 2, at the Southline Boston building on Morrissey Boulevard.
UP Academy is an in-district Boston Public Schools (BPS) charter school network that now operates two schools in Dorchester and one in South Boston, UP Academy Boston. That facility is slated to close next year, leaving a merged two-school network – UP Academy Dorchester (the former Marshall School) and UP Academy Holland – in Dorchester.
State law allows for independent and in-district charter schools, both of which exist in Dorchester.
UP Dorchester was launched in 2013, and UP Holland in 2014. This year, they are educating 1,300 students in grades K-8, who in time will join more than 10,000 alums in the area. Despite that history, the school network has never held an event celebrating the school. This year, board member Ellen Daley, of Lower Mills, drove the effort to make things right with “Shine Dorchester.”
UP CEO Hillary Casson, who arrived here from Baltimore 10 years ago to work in the newly launched in-district charter schools, said, “I had the good fortune of ending up in Dorchester for work and life. It was in Dorchester that I made my best friends, had my daughter, and bought my first home. Dorchester made me the person I am today…Our goal when we started was, and still is, that students and families have exceptional schools in their communities.”
With artwork, a performance from the honor choir, and a plant growing station at the gala, the school was highlighted in many ways, one of which was the bestowal of the first Shine Awards upon faculty and partners.
Award winners included People’s Champions Maytee Pena and Kasim Davis; Classroom Trailblazers Toya Philips, Elizabeth Wolfson, Tina Wallace, and Rita Bufford; Community Champions YouthBuild; and Opportunity Architect Bitsight.
