The chief architect of True North is Managing Director Doug Lemov, who was previously founding teacher and principal of Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter School (another celebrated school in Boston) and Vice-President for Accountability at the SUNY Charter Schools Institute. His design work grows from his significant on-the-ground charter experience as well as his MBA studies at Harvard Business School.

True North Public Schools network will create and manage high-performing schools in urban centers throughout New York State, focusing development on upstate communities in need of improved public school options. Its first schools will be grade 5-8 middle schools of approximately 290 students, each modeled on and developed in partnership with the most effective college preparatory urban public middle schools in the country. True North schools will be overwhelmingly consistent and similar in operating philosophies and methods. No two True North schools, however, will be exact duplicates. Though it will initially concentrate on middle schools, True North will ideally grow to ten schools (five elementary and five middle schools) and will ultimately serve as many as 3,200 students.

True North's first school, True North Rochester Preparatory Charter School, opened in Rochester, New York in the fall of 2006 and posted strong results on the 2007 and 2008 New York State exams. Stacey Shells, a former New York City lead teacher, is the school's Founding Principal.

The network's second middle school, True North Troy Preparatory Charter School, will open to 75 5th graders in August 2009, and will ultimately grow to serve 290 students in grades 5-8.

True North Rochester Preparatory Charter School
630 Brooks Ave
Rochester, NY 14619
Phone: 585-436-8629
Fax: 585-436-5985
info@rochesterprep.org