AI-Powered Alpha School Seeks a Greenwich Site in a Former Newsroom

Alpha School, a private school network that builds its lessons around artificial intelligence (AI) and was co-founded by tech billionaire Joe Liemandt, has applied to open its first Connecticut campus inside a downtown Greenwich building that once housed a newspaper newsroom, a clothing store and a shoe outlet. A proposal now before Greenwich’s Planning & Zoning Commission would convert part of 20 East Elm Street, just off Greenwich Avenue, from retail to educational use for a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school built around two hours of AI-driven instruction a day, followed by afternoon workshops the company calls life skills.

The network’s campus count has already passed a dozen sites nationwide. Two separate investigations, meanwhile, have questioned how well its results hold up once outside reviewers start asking for the underlying data.

Two Hours of AI, Then Real Life

The application, filed by Alpha’s attorney, William Haslun, would put the school on the first floor of the East Elm Street building. “Alpha anticipates having a maximum of 10 employees on site upon reaching full student enrollment,” Haslun wrote in the filing to the town. Students would arrive on foot, by public transportation or by drop-off, according to the application, which includes no dedicated busing plan.

Inside, the model looks the same as it does at Alpha’s other campuses. Students spend the first two hours of the school day working through math, reading and science on adaptive software at their own pace, then move to workshops on public speaking, entrepreneurship or outdoor education for the rest of the day. The company gives its adult staff a new title, guide, and their job is motivation and supervision while students work through lessons independently. “We are using the same curriculum that students in the classroom are learning from. This is not ChatGPT coming up with made-up questions,” Alpha co-founder MacKenzie Price told CBS’s Chicago station this spring, describing the same model Greenwich would inherit.

Alpha’s own campus page for the proposed Greenwich school promises students who “crush their academics in 2 hours.” The page also introduces Dr. Tasha Arnold, an educator with experience across American and international schools in the United States, Europe and Asia, as part of the campus’s leadership team. “I joined Alpha because I believe in redefining education,” Arnold says on the page.

A National Growth Sprint Reaches Greenwich

Alpha is headquartered in Austin, Texas, where its 2 Hour Learning model originated, and it has been adding campuses at a pace few private school operators attempt. Published counts put the network at 14 campuses by mid-2025, stretching from Texas and Arizona to Florida, California and New York, and the company has kept opening sites since, including a Chicago location now enrolling for fall 2026 with a goal of 50 students, according to CBS Chicago. Greenwich would be Alpha’s first Connecticut school and, per the company’s own site, is also targeting a fall 2026 opening.

The timing lines up with a broader publicity push. On July 9, Alpha is set to premiere a mini-documentary called Teachers 2.0, co-hosted with Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp, making the case that AI frees teachers to spend more time mentoring students in person.

For a long time, the conversation about AI in education has focused on the wrong question. People keep asking whether AI will replace teachers. That is not what is happening. What AI actually does is take the parts of education that are repetitive and bureaucratic and hands them off.

MacKenzie Price, Alpha’s co-founder, said in the July announcement.

Tuition Swings from $55,000 to $75,000

Alpha is not a budget alternative to public school. In Chicago, tuition runs $55,000 a year, CBS reported, a price that drew skepticism even from people intrigued by the model. “What’s concerning to me is it’s not going to be available to everybody, it’s just not scalable. I mean, the cost is just prohibitive,” said Gerber, a skeptic quoted in CBS’s report on the Chicago campus. Other Alpha campuses have charged as much as $75,000 a year, according to a parent-focused review of the network’s pricing. Greenwich tuition has not been published. The pending filing before the town addresses zoning and land use.

The spread reflects a company still pricing its model market by market while keeping the classroom experience standardized. Four of its locations show the range:

Are Alpha’s Results as Good as They Sound?

Alpha’s central claim is that its students land in the top 1 percent nationally on the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Growth test, a benchmark built by testing nonprofit NWEA, and grow roughly 2.6 times faster than peers. Those figures come from Alpha’s own analysis of its testing data. The company credits the gains, in a company blog post on its two-hour school day model, to mastery-based pacing on its TimeBack software, which requires 90 percent accuracy before a student advances to new material. No outside researcher has independently reviewed the underlying numbers, and a parent-focused review site, AIFunLab, says Alpha’s leadership pledged in early 2026 to share raw MAP files for an outside audit but had not delivered them as of May.

What Outside Reviewers Found

Two investigations published in the past year went further than a data request. WIRED’s October 2025 reporting described a nine-year-old with a doctor’s note requiring regular snacks who was told she had not yet earned one because she hadn’t hit her learning targets; Price has disputed the account. A 404 Media investigation published in February 2026, citing leaked internal documents, found Alpha’s AI-generated lesson plans had at times been flagged internally as doing “more harm than good,” and reported the company had pulled training material from platforms like Khan Academy without permission.

Screens, Staffing and Pushback

Employees have their own complaints. Alpha Schools carries a 2.8 out of 5 rating on Glassdoor from 21 reviews, below the 3.7 average for education employers on that platform, with turnover and workplace culture among the recurring gripes. The staffing model behind that friction relies on guides, adults who provide supervision and encouragement without a teaching credential. The country employs roughly 4.2 million K-12 teachers across public, charter and private schools, per a tally from the advocacy blog Public Services Alliance, and swapping licensed staff for lower-paid guides has drawn opposition from teachers’ unions elsewhere.

Not every rebuttal comes from Alpha’s marketing team. One former student, writing on the education newsletter Future of Education after a New York Times feature on Alpha drew more than 600 comments, argued that Alpha students use AI-powered learning tools for two hours a day, citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures that put average daily screen time for kids 8 to 10 at six hours. The comparison arrives as the wider tech industry settles its own lawsuits over young users and screens. TikTok and YouTube each settled lawsuits over teen social media addiction claims ahead of trials that had been scheduled for July 27, with YouTube’s own Los Angeles case ending the same way days before it was set to begin.

A Newsroom, Then Storefronts, Now Maybe a School

Long before anyone proposed an AI classroom for 20 East Elm Street, the address had its own identity. The building was home to Greenwich Time’s newsroom for 71 years, from 1937 until the newspaper moved out in April 2008. An architectural report prepared by Rudy Ridberg found the structure dates to 1929, with an addition built in 1960; Greenwich Time’s printing presses had already relocated to Stamford by the 1970s, leaving the Elm Street building as an editorial office alone for its final decades. The property is owned by Elm Street RSK LLC and the New England Property Management Corp.

Retail took over once the newsroom left, and no single tenant stayed for long:

• 1937 to April 2008: Greenwich Time’s newsroom operates at the address.
• After 2008: Urban Outfitters occupies the space as a clothing retailer, until closing in 2014.
• After 2014: Saks Fifth Avenue runs a shoe store in the building.
• Most recently: A medical office leases the space.
• Now: Alpha School has applied to convert part of the ground floor into a K-8 classroom.

Planning and Zoning Holds the Next Move

Converting the ground floor from retail to educational use requires a change-of-use approval from Greenwich’s Planning & Zoning Commission, along with a special permit and site-plan approval, according to the filing. The application had not yet been scheduled for a preliminary review as of this week. If commissioners sign off, Alpha would join a small list of AI-driven school operators testing whether a wealthy, education-obsessed suburb will trade a full teaching staff for guides, software and an afternoon of workshops.

For now, the fall 2026 opening date on Alpha’s own Greenwich campus page remains a plan that hinges on a commission calendar that has not yet set a hearing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Alpha School?

Alpha School is a private school network built around a model called 2 Hour Learning, in which students spend about two hours a day on adaptive software covering core academics, then spend afternoons on workshops in areas like public speaking, entrepreneurship and the arts. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and was co-founded by tech billionaire Joe Liemandt and MacKenzie Price, its co-founder and most visible spokesperson.

How Much Does Alpha School Cost?

Tuition varies by campus. Alpha’s Chicago location charges $55,000 a year, according to CBS Chicago, while other campuses have charged as much as $75,000, according to a parent-focused review of the network. Greenwich’s proposed campus has not published tuition, and the pending filing addresses land use alone.

Does Alpha School Use AI Chatbots Instead of Teachers?

No. Alpha describes its “AI” as adaptive learning applications, in the same category as IXL or Khan Academy, built on a fixed curriculum that adjusts to each student’s pace. Guides supervise students in person as they work through lessons independently, and the company says the software draws from the same material a traditional classroom would use.

When Would Alpha Greenwich Open, and What Grades Would It Serve?

Alpha’s own Greenwich campus page targets a fall 2026 launch, and the zoning application filed by attorney William Haslun describes a school serving kindergarten through eighth grade with a maximum of 10 employees on site at full enrollment. That timeline depends on approvals the town has not yet scheduled.

What Approvals Does the Greenwich Campus Still Need?

The proposal requires Greenwich’s Planning & Zoning Commission to approve a change of use from retail to educational, plus a special permit and site-plan approval, before Alpha can open at 20 East Elm Street. As of this month, the application had not been scheduled for a preliminary hearing.

Has Alpha School’s Academic Data Been Independently Verified?

Not yet, by outside researchers. Alpha’s claims of top 1 percent national test rankings and roughly 2.6 times faster growth on MAP assessments come from the company’s own analysis of its testing data, and a parent-focused review site says Alpha pledged to share raw files for an independent audit in 2026 but had not done so as of May.