By SANDY McGEE

PROVIDENCE — Fourth-grader Emely Landero of Central Falls bravely  spoke about her “learning community” before a room filled with state officials yesterday.

“We’re a community,” said Landero, a student at the Learning Community Charter School in Central Falls. “We help each other and other people. … Because in our learning community, students are leaders and leaders don’t give up.”
Landero was one of 11 charter school students from throughout the state to speak at the Rhode Island Charter Public School Showcase held Wednesday at the Statehouse. The event was held to celebrate the state’s charter school initiative.
“The charter school experience in Rhode Island is the best in the nation,” said Gov. Donald L. Carcieri. “We have been working hard on every front to raise the bar on education, especially in charter schools.” Rhode Island’s charter school law was enacted in 1995. Today, approximately 3,137 students from 31 cities and towns attend charter schools in the state.
“I am one of the witnesses who know all of the effort that we have done so that our school could be at this level and this progress,” Landero said. “With great effort, we can make things possible.”
Cassidy Smith, a high school senior, spoke about her experience as a student of the Beacon Charter High School for the Arts in Woonsocket.
“It (Beacon High School) has become a rescue and a relief,” Smith said. “A rescue from schools where a creative life feels unappreciated and lost in a crowd of logical thinkers and great athletes.
“Beacon charter saves those lives and shows them all of their possibilities, teaching them how to hone their natural skills and apply them to the real world.” Smith said her previous high school focused more on sports than art.
“I didn’t really feel like I fit in,” she said. “Changing to Beacon gave me the opportunity to learn about art and turn theater into more than just a hobby - to use it in the real world.”
Smith, 18, will serve as valedictorian of this year’s graduating class at Beacon Charter High School for the Arts. She plans to minor in theater at college in the fall.
Local charter school representatives at Wednesday’s ceremony also included fifth-grader Maria Marin of the International Charter School in Pawtucket and senior Melanie Gonzalez of the Blackstone Academy Charter School, also in Pawtucket.
Speakers for the event also included Education Commissioner Peter McWalters; Julie Nora, president of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools; Stephen A. Nardelli, executive director for the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools; Robert G. Flanders Jr., chair of the Rhode Island Board of Regents; and Rep. Joseph M. McNamara (D-Dist. 19, Cranston, Warwick).
“They (charter schools) have proven that they can open in urban areas and succeed in locations that normally don’t do well financially,” McNamara said.
Most of the charter schools in the state operate in urban areas.
There is also high demand to attend a charter school. About 3,600 students are on waiting lists to attend charter schools in Rhode Island.
“I would like to think that someday this room is not only filled with charter school advocates, but advocates from the districts,” McWalters said. “This is not a partisan issue. This is about public policy. There is no reason that this can’t become the public education model.”
McWalters received a standing ovation from the audience.
At the conclusion of Wednesday’s ceremony, Nora announced the creation of the Peter McWalters Professional Development Award.
The award will be presented each year, starting in 2010, to one educator in the state who presents an outstanding proposal for professional development.
Students attending Wednesday’s ceremony also hailed from the Times 2 Academy in Providence; Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, Providence; Paul Cuffee School, Providence; Highlander Academy, Providence; Cranston Construction Career Academy, Cranston; The Compass Charter School, South Kingstown; and The Kingston Hill Academy in South Kingstown.