PROVIDENCE — As a social studies teacher in Harlem and a cheerleader coach for middle school students in Providence, Jeremy Chiappetta has always been committed to giving urban children some of the same opportunities as their more affluent peers.

Now Chiappetta, the former assistant principal at Oliver Hazard Perry Middle School, has been tapped to run the new mayoral academy in Cumberland, which will be operated by Democracy Prep, a charter school in Harlem. If the school receives $700,000 from the General Assembly, Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley will open this fall with 76 kindergarten students from Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket. Democracy Prep Blackstone will eventually grow to include 745 students in grades K-8.

Chiappetta, who has spent five years in the Providence schools, three of them at Perry, said he wasn’t looking to make a change. In fact, when Mike Magee, Democracy Prep’s new CEO, approached him in February, Chiappetta turned him down. But Magee persisted and he eventually persuaded him to visit Democracy Prep in Harlem.

“I went into every classroom more than once,” he said Friday. “What I saw was a school that every kid deserves.”

Democracy Prep, he said, offers a longer school day, including an hour of afterschool tutorials, Saturday classes and double periods of math and literacy. Although the 400-pupil Harlem middle school has been around for less than three years, Angus Davis, a member of the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, says it is a model that works, adding that it draws from established charter schools like KIPP.

Chiappetta, who is 35 and lives in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, brings a lot to the table. When he and principal Frances Rotella arrived at Perry three years ago, it was a school in turmoil, roiled by constant turnover at the top, discipline problems and chronically low test scores.

Slowly, the two school leaders, working with the staff, began to turn things around.

In 2007, Chiappetta introduced the Perry to College program by bringing more than 40 eighth graders on a tour of Harvard, including a meeting with President Drew Gilpen Faust. As part of the program, students submitted a mock application to Harvard, and, based on their essays, they were accepted, wait-listed or denied admission.

Chiappetta also began rebranding the grade names at Perry. Seventh graders are referred to as the Class of 2018, the year they graduate from college. College visits are now an annual spring ritual at the Hartford Avenue school.

“We have to tell them why college is important,” Chiappetta said in an earlier interview. “We are showing them that there is a path to higher education and that a college degree will translate into a better job and a higher income.”

Chiappetta, who began his career with Teach for America, a crash course for college graduates, also began an afterschool program called Classical Prep, which prepares students to take the Classical High School entrance exam. In 2005-06, only 6 Perry students were admitted to Classical; this year, 21 students are going to the district’s premier high school.

Why is Classical so important to Perry’s students? Because 90 percent of its graduates attend college. As Chiappetta said, “Classical represents college.”

Today, Perry is no longer classified by the state as a failing school. Last month, the Department of Education announced that Perry is one of five Providence middle schools that are making annual yearly progress, a huge improvement for a school that was recently a candidate for a state takeover.

Thanks to his constant refrain that college is within reach, Chiappetta has begun to persuade students to take their education seriously, Rotella said.

Supt. Tom Brady called Chiappetta “a very bright young man who did wonderful work at Perry and has a wonderful ability to motivate students.”

So why is he leaving?

“The mayoral academies and Democracy Prep provide a tremendous opportunity to bring this work to the next level,” Chiappetta said. “It’s a good fit in terms of philosophy, opportunity and timing.”

Chiappetta has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in business from Yale University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Rhode Island. He is married, with two young children.

lborg@projo.com