PROVIDENCE — State education officials approved a new kind of charter school Friday, a mayoral academy that , for the first time, puts municipal leaders in charge of one these alternative public schools.

Cumberland Mayor Daniel J. McKee won support for the mayoral academy concept from the General Assembly in 2008, but had to wait for the state Department of Education to review his proposal in order to open the elementary school this fall in Cumberland. However, it was clear from the start that McKee’s proposal had powerful support, including Governor Carcieri and several members of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, which approves charter school applications.

The mayoral academy, which will be overseen by a board that will include political, community and education figures, will serve students from Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket. The first class will consist of 76 kindergarteners, 19 from each community. McKee hopes to expand to first and fifth grades in 2010.

McKee has hired Democracy Prep, a charter school company based in Harlem, to operate the school. The school opened its lottery to start accepting students earlier this week.

Democracy Prep focuses on raising the achievement levels of low-income students, a goal the Board of Regents now says is essential for any new charter school to open.

“This is going to be a socio-economically diverse school where every single child is set on the path to college,” said Michael Magee, director of Cumberland’s Office of Children, Youth and Learning. “We are excited for families to have this option and also about the impact this school will have on the overall conversation about public education in Rhode Island.”

Final approval of the new charter school by the full Board of Regents is scheduled for Thursday, at 4 p.m., 255 Westminster St., Room 501.

The Regents’ charter and state operated schools committee held off on the approval of a charter school in Central Falls, the Segue Institute for Learning, which would serve middle school students, saying it needed more details on the proposed curriculum. The committee said it would meet Wednesday to discuss the matter.

“I think we all want this school to happen but we only have nine slots left … we want to be confident everything is ready to go here,” said Angus Davis, chair of the committee.

State law currently caps the number of charters statewide at 20; Rhode Island has 11. Charters are paid for by taxpayers but are free from many of the rules and restrictions that govern regular public schools.

Democracy Prep and Segue, if approved, can only move forward if lawmakers decide to keep $1.5 million in money for new charter schools in 2009-2010 that the governor allocated in his budget.

This year, the Regents weighed seven charter school proposals, but knew they would likely have only enough state money for two.

A backlog of applications was caused by a four-year moratorium the General Assembly placed on new charter schools — which was lifted in 2008 — and the state’s fiscal crisis.

President Obama is a strong supporter of charters and Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said that states that do not allow the growth of high-quality charter schools could lose out on millions of additional stimulus dollars.

The Regents’ committee granted two other proposals “preliminary approval” for a possible September 2010 opening: Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts, a high school in Providence; and the Greene School, an environmental high school located on the University of Rhode Island’s Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich.

An application to open an elementary charter school in the former Potowomut School in Warwick has changed so significantly over the past few months that the committee said the proposal should go out for public hearing again. The concept now includes reaching out to disadvantaged students from across the state, in accordance with new criteria the Regents adopted in April.

In addition, the Paul Cuffee School, a K-8 school in Providence, received approval to expand into high school grades, starting in September 2010, provided $800,000 is allocated by lawmakers for 2010-2011.

Two other charter school proposals were put on hold: the Enki Community School, a K-8 school in Providence, and the Urban League Middle College, in East Providence.

jjordan@projo.com