Providence Day School launched the Little School House Initiative which builds, installs, and maintains small boxes similar to the Little Free Library to provide school supplies and other school necessities for students attending Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS). Supplies in the kits include notebook paper, sharpened pencils, notebooks, crayons, scissors, glue sticks, colored pencils, dry erase markers, and bookmarks colored by PD Lower and Middle School students. 

The first Little School House was installed on October 31, 2020, at the Urban Farm at Aldersgate. Dr. Jennifer Bratyanski, Upper School Community Engagement Coordinator for Social Responsibility, hopes to build and install ten Little School Houses by the end of the school year with efforts from students in grades 6-12.

This initiative is made possible through collaboration between the school and community partners. Middle and Upper School classes taught by Jordan Ellis, Theatre Technical Director, are developing “build kits” to make student assembly of the Little School Houses easier and faster. Partner organization She Built This City brought their mobile tool unit to campus to work with students building boxes, and in the future, additional community partners are interested in working together to distribute school supplies as more boxes are installed.

In collaboration with community partners in East Charlotte, target areas have been identified for the first Little School House installations, with the priority of donations going to neighborhoods that support existing partnerships between CMS and PD. Locations near ourBRIDGE for KIDS, Winterfield Elementary, and a variety of apartment buildings are under consideration.

Little School House boxes will be maintained and replenished each month by Upper School students.