Revamped Massachusetts Prep School Opens for Fall

By Eric Althoff

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Veritas Prep High School is officially open for 9th grade learning, even as the bulldozers have continued to bring the school into the educational present.

Veritas underwent $20.4 million in renovations realized by Warner Larson Landscape Architects of Boston and general contractor Fontaine Brothers of Springfield. The school, first founded in 2012, previously serviced grades 5 through 8, but this fall’s class includes the first students in grade 9 as well. All told, the school now hosts nearly 400 students.

“We founded Veritas Prep Charter School in Springfield as a middle school in 2012 with a mission of preparing students to compete, achieve and succeed in high school, college and beyond,” Rachel Romano, founder and executive director, said in a recent statement. “We assembled a diverse high school design team, bringing together more than 200 Springfield community members, current and former Veritas scholars and families, and Veritas teachers, leaders and staff. With the right voices at the table, we have been able to reimagine what high school can look like and create a compelling, career-focused, early college model.”

Veritas’s educational focus entails such disciplines as engineering and health sciences. The school reports that only a quarter of Springfield’s high school graduates go on to pursue higher education, and thus Veritas aims to tick that number upwards in the years to come.