A new public charter high school has found a temporary home for the fall in the classrooms of Keene State.
Sarah Kossayda, director of marketing at Keene State College, said Granite Valley Preparatory will be working from “a concentrated set of classrooms” at the college, but the exact location of those rooms within the college wasnot yet known.
Neither are the details of the lease agreement, which are still being discussed, Christopher Smith, co-founder of Granite Valley, said.
The charter school will admit its first students in the fall, but will not occupy its permanent home, Keene State’s Blake House, until the 2026-27 school year. The building is currently undergoing renovations.
The public charter school was founded in 2024 by Smith and Liberty Ebright, two former administrators from St. Joseph Regional School and its sister school Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Keene. Smith said they wanted to open a school that taught “traditional education values,” which means a move away from competency-based education — assessment based on mastery of course skills, or “competencies” — in favor of letter grades, midterms, cumulative finals and textbooks.
Courses will focus on developing leadership and communication skills among students, as well as requiring they take classes that promote creativity and innovation, according to previous Sentinel reporting. The school will also have a no cellphone policy.
Smith said the new location just makes sense.
“We felt like, our mission being to get our students into postsecondary schools, trade schools and technical schools, that our school merged well with Keene State,” he said.
Public charter schools are public and tuition-free schools approved by the state that provide an alternative to traditional public schools.
The N.H. Department of Education approved Granite Valley’s charter and the school received a $1.1 million federal Charter School Program start-up grant through the state, The Sentinel reported in March.
The school will open for grades 9-11 in the fall, with 12th grade added next year, since the school wants to make sure students get the required classes from the charter before they leave school.
Granite Valley is almost fully staffed, but as of last Friday was still looking for a part-time Spanish teacher and a part-time physical education teacher, Smith said.
The Blake House, the charter school’s eventual home, was last occupied by Keene State’s Management Program and the Small Business Development Center, but both programs have since moved to the Putnam Science Center building, Kossayda said.
Melinda Treadwell, president of Keene State, said in a June 10 email to faculty and staff that the partnership of the two public institutions is part of an “effort to broaden educational and career options where we work.”
More details about the partnership between the two schools will be released “in the coming months,” Treadwell said in her email.
Noah Diedrich can be reached at 603-355-8569, or ndiedrich@keenesentinel.com.
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