Other than the strips of paper Scotch - taped to the glass that name one conference room for the educator and civil -
rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune and the other for W. E. B. Du Bois, the Match Beyond space is a fairly sterile office.
Governor Donald Carcieri, Speaker Gordon Fox and Mayor Daniel J. McKee cut the ribbon at Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy's 2009 opening, surrounded by (from left to
right) Cranston mayor Allan Fung, R.I. attorney general Peter Kilmartin, former senate majority
leader Daniel Connors, R.I. commissioner of education Deborah Gist, former president of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools Nel - son Smith and former R.I. representative
Mary Ann Shallcross Smith.