As charter students return to class, a new KIPP principal has a long history with the network

Most public school students return to classrooms the Thursday after Labor Day. But for hundreds of thousands of charter school students, class is already in session.

That includes the city’s second-largest network, KIPP NYC, serving 8,000 students across 18 schools. Students arrived at KIPP STAR College Prep Middle School Monday morning in Harlem for their first day of class, greeted by a brand new principal.

“It was so exciting to see the students come in, ready to learn, in uniform, and just all the smiles this morning. They came in with their parents, parents were taking photos. It’s just, it’s just been amazing this morning,” principal Carol Martinez said.

Martinez is new to the role of principal, but not to KIPP. Her own children, now grown up, attended KIPP middle schools more than two decades ago. When they had moved on to high school, KIPP was hiring.

“My daughter was like, ‘Mom, you will be so good for KIPP.’ And at the time, I was working in law enforcement, I was working for the Department of Probation, and I just thought about it — I was like, ‘I’d rather be proactive than reactive.’ So I just took the leap,” she said.

Martinez joined the charter network and served as a teacher, director of operations, dean of students, assistant principal, and now, as principal.

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