Original Research by School Decision on Evergreen Charter School
Evergreen Charter School is a bilingual K-12 charter district serving a student population drawn almost entirely from Hispanic and Native American families, with smaller numbers of Black students. The school serves the Hempstead area of Nassau County.
The enrollment spans all grades from kindergarten through twelfth, with a full elementary cohort of roughly equal-sized classes, then a taper through middle school and into the newly added high school grades. The addition of grades nine through twelve represents a major structural shift: until recently, Evergreen operated only through eighth grade, meaning families had to enroll their children elsewhere for high school. That pathway constraint is now gone. The high school enrollment is still building, with the youngest four grades considerably smaller than the lower grades, which reflects the school's recent expansion into those levels.
A new five-story building on Laurel Avenue, completed recently and financed through tax-exempt bonds, now houses grades seven through twelve in a dedicated facility. The building is constructed from mass timber and designed with environmental principles in mind. Classrooms are capped at small sizes, the school maintains soundproof music rooms, a meditation space, and a rooftop garden with teaching kitchen. The consolidation of previously scattered rented sites into this single building means that middle and high school students now have a more cohesive campus environment rather than distributing across multiple leased spaces. This investment signals a commitment to permanence and growth in the area.
On the academic side, state assessment data for this charter district is not available, so evidence of proficiency or achievement cannot be drawn from that source. A graduation rate cannot be calculated because the school has only recently begun graduating classes from its newly added high school grades. These gaps reflect the newness of the secondary expansion rather than a data collection issue. Parents interested in understanding academic outcomes at the high school level would benefit from speaking directly with the school.
Among Nassau County's districts, Evergreen's chronic absenteeism rate sits below the midpoint, suggesting that attendance is relatively better managed than in many other district peer schools in the county. Per-pupil spending is in the lower range within the county, which a parent may want to discuss with the school to understand how resources are allocated and what that means for classroom support and programming.
The school's bilingual mission and its deliberately small student composition create a particular kind of learning environment. Families are drawn from historically underserved communities, and the charter structure has allowed the school to design its facility and schedule around those communities' needs rather than working within a traditional district framework. Whether that pedagogy and peer composition fit a family's preferences is a personal calculus, but the infrastructure and staffing choices suggest the school has invested in the conditions for close student-teacher relationships and an intentional school culture.
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