Saturday, October 31, 2026
Diamond Charter School hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of their temporary West Hempstead location on Saturday, Oct. 24.
The charter school is coming to West Hempstead temporarily as their permanent location in Hempstead is under construction. They are operating at 12 Westminster Road, at the old St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School.
Founder and executive director of Diamond Mark Crusante was excited to see the opening finally come to fruition.
“We are ecstatic and over the moon to open our doors,” Crusante said. “Not only to the students that I have here in front of me, but to the community at large.”
Students posed with Crusante on the front steps as he cut the ribbon. Diamond administrators, staff, faculty, students and parents attended the ceremony. Afterwards, a reception was held in the school gymnasium with refreshments, snacks and cocktail tables.
“They are decorated with our student’s pictures, because our students make up our school,” said Spanish and English as a new language (ENL) teacher Tatiana Lambros. She was at the reception handing out gift bags at the “swag table” for parents, containing umbrellas, note pads and other merchandise with the school logo on it.
The school currently teaches students in kindergarten and first grade, with plans to add one grade level per school year until hitting fifth grade. According to Lambros and principal Renee Hynes, they take students from around the area all the way to Queens and Suffolk County.
Their new location will be on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead, under a mile away from their current location. They plan to stay at the St. Thomas location for about 18 months, at which time they will move permanently to Hempstead.
Their school year started on Sept. 1, with events like the hispanic heritage celebration having happened already.
Hynes wanted to make sure that she, and the school as a whole, were fulfilling their goal to support their community through this event and others in the future as the school continues in its temporary home.
“We really wanted to do right by our families to make sure this could actually happen because we promised our families that we wanted to be of support to the community,” Hynes said, “and I really hope we’re keeping that promise.”
The ribbon cutting ceremony was supposed to happen in late September, however was delayed due to the nor-easter happening at the time.
