The Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence (BASSE) celebrated its opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony recently, with over 200 community members, families and staff members in attendance.
Linda Price of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Georgetown Mayor Bill West facilitated the ceremony, which featured messages from Bryan Allen Stevenson; the Stevenson family; Senator Chris Coons; former NFL player, Duron Harmon; Secretary of Education, Mark Holodick; Executive Director of the Charter School Network, Kendall Masset; BASSE student Russell Ellis and members of the BASSE founding team.
BASSE board and staff members along with Stevenson family members are pictured with, from left, front row: Senator Kyle Gay, Jayln Powell, Denise Snyder, Karen Higgins, Amy Golden-Shepherd, Dr. Teresa Berry, Christy Taylor, Dr. Howard Stevenson, Alonna Berry, Leslie Slan, Mayor Bill West, Betsy Renzo and Kendall Masset. Photo from Denise Snyder
Based in Georgetown, BASSE is a free public charter school focused on service learning to encourage students to stay engaged in and dedicated to Sussex County. BASSE offers students a personalized, rigorous academic curriculum.
Originally from Milton, Bryan Allen Stevenson is a social justice activist, lawyer and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala. Stevenson is also the author of the New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy, which was adapted to a 2019 feature-film starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.
Earlier this year, Stevenson donated $100,000 to the initiative.
“The Bryan Stevenson School of Excellence will not just create the next Bryan Stevenson, but will usher in the next generation of Bryan Stevensons, fighting for a better tomorrow with the understanding that, in the words of Bryan Stevenson, ‘We all have a responsibility to create a just society’,” said Founder Alonna Berry.
BASSE welcomed its first class of sixth, seventh and eighth graders in September. For more information, visit www.basseinc.org/.
