Connecticut’s board of education earlier this year granted initial approval recognizing PROUD Academy in Asonia as a charter school. Founded in 2023, PROUD (which stands for Proudly Respecting Our Unique Differences) could become the first LGBTQ-affirming charter middle school in New England if state legislators approve the financing.
“To simply be in high school is hard. Being yourself shouldn’t be. Therefore, it’s time for all of us to give teenagers who are gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer, or even just questioning themselves a voice, the voice I never had,” Barb Elwood of Milford said at a school board public hearing prior to the school board’s decision, reported the Valley Independent Sentinel. “When I was a student in high school in 1984, I found myself very conflicted. I felt one way on the inside, but the society I was growing up in dictated that I live an entirely different life.”
Reports the Valley Independent Sentinel:
The school plans to open in September 2026 at the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley at 28 Howard Ave. Whether that will happen is still up in the air – state legislators will need to approve funding for the school before it can move forward.
The students may come from the region, not just Ansonia alone.
It plans to operate as a middle school, starting with 50 sixth-graders in its first year of operation and eventually taking in 150 total students between sixth and eighth grade by year three. It plans to operate tuition-free, according to Nicolari.
PROUD Academy intends to accept students from across Connecticut. Nicolari said she has received interest in the school from families as far away as Florida.
The state school board approved four other charter schools throughout the state on Jan. 15, in Stamford, New Haven, and Waterbury.
Read the complete Valley Independent Sentinel story here.
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