New Bedford Charter School Hires Familiar Face as New Director

Steven Furtado, Jr. is now in charge at the Global Learning Charter Public School in New Bedford.

He's served as the school's business manager for 13 years, and now takes over as Executive Director at Global Learning, succeeding his father, Steven Furtado, Sr., who retired at the end of the last school year.

The younger Furtado is bringing with him a new plan to curb the use of cell phones by students during the school day. He visited Townsquare Sunday to discuss his new role and the new cell phone policy.

Furtado said he's worn many hats while working at Global Learning.

"Beyond my accounting experiences, I also helped manage the construction of the new education center, I oversaw the food service program, transportation, Human Resources, custodians and building maintenance," he said. "It was an all-encompassing job, and no two days were ever the same."

As for changes at Global Learning, Furtado said there will be a renewed emphasis on project-based learning and innovation this year. Global Learning will also be introducing a cell-phone free school.

Furtado said the school is requiring students to lock their cell phones in Yondr pouches for the entire school day.

"We want to take the burden of cell phones off the teachers and students, and allow the students to really focus on classroom learning," he said. "It's going to allow students to interact with each other more, and better focus to stay on-task without something buzzing in your pocket,"

He admitted it will probably take some time for the policy to take hold, but he said the staff is prepared to make it work.

The policy was introduced to parents this summer, and according to the new Executive Director, there has been very little pushback so far.

Furtado said on the first day of school, he's looking forward to getting pushback from students about the cell phone policy, because he says "that will make us better."

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