Paul Cuffee High School principal Becky Coustan, center and below, reviews lesson plans with two ninth-grade teachers, Toni Beall, right (mathematics), and Aaron Weiser-Woodward (humanities).

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Paul Cuffee Charter School, which began nine years ago in a church basement, is embarking on a new voyage: founder David Bourns is leaving after nine years and the school is opening a high school this fall.

On Wednesday, Bourns introduced his new principal for the high school, Becky Coustan, a former teacher leader at Hope High School who worked most recently as a “district visit” fellow at the state Department of Education.

“This is an exciting next step for me,” Coustan says. “It’s an opportunity to bring together all of the things that I’ve done” — big city lawyer, social studies teacher and curriculum developer.

Cuffee has also hired a new head of school, Michael Obel-Omia, who spent the bulk of his career at Roxbury Latin School, in Boston, where he was dean of students and director of admissions.

Coustan says the hiring process illustrates what makes Cuffee special: she was asked to teach a lesson, to role-play working with another teacher on instruction, and to lead a large-group discussion about how to improve math skills.

“It was clear to me how much the community works together,” she says. “This is a school where the focus is on students and instruction is always about what’s best for kids.”

Coustan will have her hands full when the high school opens this fall with 60 ninth graders, who hail from different school environments, from independent schools and charters to Providence public schools.

For starters, Cuffee will be spread over three locations: the elementary school on Promenade Street, the middle school on Barton Street and the high school in a leased space that will be announced soon.

“The challenge,” Coustan says, “will be to maintain the culture at Cuffee.”

To stay connected, the school will create subject-area departments that span middle and high schools. For example, there will be a combined math department, a combined English department and so forth.

Cuffee will hold a two-day orientation for ninth graders in August that will focus on community building. Students will engage in fun activities that develop math and literacy skills as well as take swimming and sailing lessons.

The high school held its first orientation for parents and students in May, where students were invited to vote for their favorite enrichment activities. Ninth graders were selected by lottery, the practice at all of the state’s charter schools.

With a focus on maritime history, the school is named after the 18th-century shipbuilder Paul Cuffee, son of a freed African slave and a Wampanoag Indian, who started his own racially integrated school in Westport, Mass., in 1797.

The high school schedule itself is daunting. Students will arrive at 8 a.m., spend 20 minutes in advisory and study their core academic subjects until lunch. Afterward, students will spend an hour taking electives. From 3:15 p.m. until 5 p.m. they will participate in sports or clubs or receive additional math and literacy instruction.

One of the hallmarks of this charter school is its emphasis on communication. In keeping with the Cuffee tradition, the high school, which will add a grade every year, will hold weekly town meetings where teachers and students catch up on the latest news, share success and showcase student talent.

The goal is to develop a common set of values among a group of newcomers — teachers and students alike.

Asked why he was retiring, Bourns says, “I felt it was time. The school needs new leadership.”

What will he miss the most?

The “micro-wave,” a finger wave that children use as they pass his office, where the door is always open. The commitment by Cuffee teachers to keep getting better. The belief that students come first.

Bourns, the former headmaster of a Quaker school in Pennsylvania, based Cuffee on four principles: to take care of oneself, to take care of one another, to take care of the school and to take care of the world.

He hopes that the school he founded on mutual respect will never lose sight of its mission.

lborg@projo.com