New Charter School Opens in Hoboken Friday

It's almost time to go back to school and Hoboken is one school richer.

HoLa, the first dual-language charter school in town, will celebrate its opening Friday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

"After several years of planning and a rigorous application process, HoLa will welcome 132 K-2 students to its free, full-time Spanish-English dual language elementary school in September," stated a press release sent out by the school's founders.

A lottery was held on Jan. 14 to determine which students would be accepted. Every year, a grade will be added to the school, until fifth grade is reached.

The school will approach the typical core curriculum through the two-way Language Immersion approach in English and Spanish. The idea behind it is that a child will become bilingual and biliterate—fluent in both languages. Teachers are trained in dual language education.  

, holds two masters degrees, one in School Administration and the other in Bilingual Education. For the past five years she has been the Assistant Principal at the Lenape Meadows Elementary School in Mahwah, N.J.

"We are very excited to unveil this dynamic program which will allow our students to master a challenging curriculum, as well as fluency in Spanish and English," Acosta said in a statement. 

The school will be located at 123 Jefferson Street, home of the Boys and Girls Club of Hoboken. The building has been renovated to accommodate the HoLa students.

After school hours, regular programming at the Boys and Girls Club will continue as usual. "We are delighted to be partnering with the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School and believe that the school will complement the services we currently provide the community," said Gary Greenberg, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County.

Editor's note: A charter school is a public school open to all students on a space-available basis and operated independently of the district board of education. All appropriately-aged Hoboken residents may apply, regardless of language skills or previous exposure to Spanish or English. If the number of applicants exceeds the available spots in a given year, a public lottery will be held in January.