Charter School Closer To SciPark Move

Highville Charter School’s Young Diplomats debated themselves one step closer to a new school building in Science Park.

Several of the school’s students offered testimony to the Legislation Committee of the Board of Alders, which then unanimously approved a proposal that would enable the school to relocate from Hamden to 1 Science Park in New Haven.

The full board will see the proposal Monday night, and then is scheduled to cast a final vote at its Dec. 1 meeting.

The school is petitioning the city to change a zoning ordinance to include a potential use of the land for primary and secondary schools.

“We want a neighborhood school,” Highville Charter School’s executive director Craig Drezek said to the committee Thursday. ​“Where we are, there’s no way to involve the community.”

Highville is renting a building on Leeder Hill Drive in Hamden and currently serves 400 students in grades pre‑K to 10. Seventy percent of these students are from New Haven, most from Newhallville. The lease at the current building ends next June.

A planned expansion would push Highville enrollment through 12th grade by September 2016.

The school has an agreement to purchase the four-acre property located at 300 to 320 Mansfield St. (also known as 1 Science Park) from the Southern New England Telephone Company. Drezek said 1 Science Park is a perfect place for relocation, because of its size and proximity to its Newhallville students.

Legislation Committee Chair Jessica Holmes warned her fellow alders and community members to stick to the topic at hand.

“The mission of the school can be helpful, but the mission we have before us is specific to a zoning change,” Holmes, who represents East Rock, said at the hearing, which took place last Thrusdayn ight.

Then advisor Vaughn Canterbury led a delegation of middle-school Young Diplomats to the stand to plead their case.

Canterbury said the student group itself was a good reason to approve the relocation. ​“I believe in this program,” he said. ​“If it needs a zone change for this progress to come to New Haven,” then the alders should make it happen.

Eighth-grader Eric Jones spoke into the microphone at an almost-whisper. ​“The space we are in is too small for our community,” he said. ​“The ninth and tenth-graders are forced to share a room.”

The move ​“will have a positive effect on the school and the school’s staff and students,” said seventh-grader Krystal Gentles (pictured), next to go up to the front of the aldermanic chambers.

An Oct 15 City Plan Commission’s advisory report had recommended approving the proposal, pending a review of the final site plan. The commission found the proposal ​“consistent with the overall intent and purpose” of Science Park and ​“in accordance with the comprehensive plans of the city.”

Westville Alder Adam Marchand, a member of the Legislation Committee and of the City Plan Commission, had voted no to the proposal on Oct. 15.

He said his primary question as a member of the commission was: ​“Is this the best and highest use of this parcel of land? … Will it fit the future use of the land?” Marchand voted against the school’s move because he didn’t know if it was the best use of 1 Science Park.

But after hearing the support from alders in the neighborhood, he changed his mind and voted yes with his committee. ​“Also because I realized that there is no better use of land for that area of New Haven .… The notion that that area will be a high-tech incubator for companies — that ship has sailed,” he said.

Newhallville Alders Delphine Clyburn, Brenda Foskey Cyrus and Alfreda Edwards and Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison submitted a letter expressing their support for the relocation.

The move would ​“bring over 20 new full and/or part time entry level and professional positions to our city,” they wrote in the letter.

“I’m into kids being in the community,” Morrison said Thursday night. ​“There are a lot of kids in Dixwell and Newhallville who bus out.”

Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton also spoke on behalf of the school. Her son attended the school. ​“The program they offer to students gives them the ability to step up as intelligent people of color … and people of all races.”

Committee members voted unanimously to approve the amendment, with two stating the school seems like a good ​“anchor” for the community. Marchand advised Drezek to reach out to local neighborhood leaders to discuss their plans for the site.

The charter school was born in 2007 out of the Highville Mustard Seed Charter School, whose director drove it into financial ruin. The school was reincorporated under a new state charter and a new name. As a charter school, it is managed by an independent board and accepts public-school kids through a public lottery. It operates on its own charter, or governing document, which must be renewed by the state.

The Highville Charter School has survived two renewals of its charter — a sign that it has regained the state’s trust after its predecessor’s demise.