When Aging in America shut its doors in August, there was speculation that a charter school was going to occupy the property..
When the building was first vacated, Aging in America declined to confirm its future use. Now, according to confirmation received last week, three separate Icahn Charter Schools will soon be calling the building at 1500 Pelham Parkway South home.
The building once housed Mother Butler Memorial High School for Girls. An additional 10,000 square feet of classroom space will be added to the building, according to a November 10 Department of Buildings filing, and work is already underway preparing the building for a September 2011 opening.
Icahn Charter Schools board member Julie Goodyear confirmed that Icahn Charter School #3, currently located at 108 W. 174th Street, and Icahn Charter School #4, located at the Monroe High School Annex at 1551 East 172nd Street, will be moving into the building. The schools, which will eventually include kindergarten through eighth-grade, will be joined in the building by a new school: Icahn Charter School #5. New construction will allow the building to house close to 1,000 students.
“In order to ultimately have all of the schools be kindergarten through eighth grade, we will have to add space,” Goodyear said. “The construction will not be completed right away, and should continue on past the September 2011 opening. The building currently has a gym and cafeteria, but we would not have enough classroom space without adding to the present building.”
The work on the addition, will include a fourth story, can continue past the September 2011 opening because not all of the space will be needed. The charter schools will only expand one grade per school year. In September 2011 Icahn Charter School #3 will run from k-5th grade, Icahn Charter School #4 will reach to the 4th grade, and Icahn Charter School #5 will service up to the 2nd grade.
Goodyear said that first preference will be given to school children living in the local school district, as well as to siblings of current pupils. There will be 36 students in each school per grade level, each class consisting of 18 students, she said. Students will be selected through a lottery system, and since Icahn Charter Schools are getting great results, Goodyear said, she expects a lot of applicants.
Goodyear said that the building is an obvious choice to locate the schools because the building had previously been a school. She said that the Icahn Charter School model calls for a longer school day typically lasting from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., a longer school year lasting until mid-July, and small class sizes with lots of individual attention paid to each student.
The first Carl C. Icahn Charter School opened on Brook Avenue in 2001, with support from Icahn, a billionaire. Since then, the schools have consistently out performed median test scores from students around the state on standardized English Language Arts and Math tests. Icahn is best known as a financier, corporate raider, and private equity investor.
“Mr. Icahn has a strong commitment to education,” Goodyear said.
Alterations to the building will not be coming before Community Board 11 or the City Council, because it is an as-of-right project.qtdz
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