Robert Pilkington

LinkedIn
Robert Pilkington, Ed.D.

Public Charter School Operator and Designer

Warwick, Rhode Island
Education Management

Current

Village Green Virtual Charter School

Previous

The Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, RINI Middle College, Middle College Planning and Design Consultancy

Education

Johnson & Wales University

Summary

Career educator and ardent supporter of the public charter school model: beginning as a per diem substitute teacher in Providence, RI in the mid 1980's and now serving as a RI State Certified Superintendent, consultant and charter school designer, my experience is varied and unique. Establishing the first charter school in RI, which still stands as the only public school conversion, as well as founding and establishing the state's League of Charters has led to a tremendous number of opportunities to expand this brilliant model of public education.

Specialties: Charter school program design, school operation, fiscal management and facility renovation, educational leadership, brain based learning, board management and public relations
Experience

Superintendent & Designer/Operator/Founder
Village Green Virtual Charter School
December 2001 – Present (15 years 9 months)

Designed as a purposefully disruptive innovation, the Village Green Virtual School received its charter from the RI State Board of Education on June 6, 2013. The school is designed to fundamentally change the scope of the teacher's work, employ vetted and viable curricula with unlimited access and equity, increase student proficiency and academic skills and create a vibrant community of learners within a digitally rich context.
Founder and Past President
The Rhode Island League of Charter Schools
January 2001 – July 2014 (13 years 7 months)

Through the receipt of RI's first federal dissemination grant for charter school support, I was able to design and implement the state's only charter school advocacy and support agency in 2000 and 2001. By serving as the founding individual responsible for business and infrastructural growth, mission and vision establishment, branding and hallmarking, outreach and public relations, tax exempt status acquisition, membership organizing and grant writing, the League has been both a source of personal and professional pride. In 2004 a full time Executive Director was hired and I transitioned from being the "hub" of the organization to being integral to its governance and counsel. Currently, the League serves its member schools with a large array of services and benefits.
Former Superintendent
RINI Middle College
January 2008 – June 2013 (5 years 6 months)

The RINI Middle College is an experimental RI charter high school whose goal is to increase retention rates within the state's BSN programs. In fulfillment of this mission, the middle college model is used to align the course requirements of higher education and the dual enrollment experience for the student nurse. The result is the institutional attainment of the elusive "seamless K to 16" public school continuum.
Author of RI's Six Middle College Applications
Middle College Planning and Design Consultancy
September 2000 – June 2013 (12 years 10 months)

Beginning in 2003 with a seminar and visit to the Middle College National Consortium at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York, I became enamored with the middle college philosophy and its potential to create a true bridge from the PK to 12 system and the 13 to 16 system.I have authored six middle college applications including four for independent charters and two for sponsored schools. In 2005 the University of Rhode Island adapted an earlier middle college plan, and as a member of then President Carothers' design team, the URI Academy Middle College Charter School for Post Adjudicated Youth emerged. This application was used as a platform for the first legislative attack on the state's charter school moratorium. In 2007 a different version of the middle college plan, this time including the groundbreaking PBGR Completion Academy, was sponsored by the Urban League of RI and became one of two schools to be conditionally approved by the State Board of Regents during the era of the moratorium. Presently, a new middle college plan with a nursing and health care theme has been developed as a fully approved RI charter school which opened in September 2011.
Beacon Charter High School for the Arts
Former Superintendent
Beacon Charter High School for the Arts
August 2005 – August 2012 (7 years 1 month)

Public charter school in Rhode Island. Founded in 2003 and specializing in visual, dramatic and culinary arts. Grades 9 through 12, state-wide enrollment, college prep curriculum.
Teacher and Administrator
Providence School Department
September 1985 – August 2005 (20 years)

1985 to 2005 Providence School Department, serving in the following capacities:

1998 to 2005 Operations Officer, Textron/Chamber of Commerce Charter School

1997 to 1998 Textron/Chamber of Commerce Charter School Acting Director, 1st charter school administrator in Rhode Island

1992 to 1999 Providence Teachers Union Executive Board Member. Served as the Chairman of the Committee on Political Education under PTU President Phyllis Tennian. My joining the Steve Smith slate in an unsuccessful bid to upset the incumbant slate signaled the end of my career as a large urban teachers union official. However, it is the union movement which introduced me to charter schooling in 1995.

1996 to 1997 Co-author, with Gary Davis, of the Textron/Chamber of Commerce School's charter, RI’s first charter school

1995 to 1996 Author of "Work-Prep" - an intergenerational adult education daytime school to work and high school degree completion program. Charter application submitted during the first year of the charter law and first round of charter school submissions.

1995 to 1997 English teacher and founding faculty member of the Chamber of Commerce High School, Providence

1994 to 1995 Chamber of Commerce High School Design Team

1985 to 1994 English teacher, Central High School and Roger Williams Middle School, Providence