A Hamden-based charter school that mostly serves students from Newhallville will soon call Science Park home.
The Board of Alders Monday night approved a proposal that will allow the school, Highville Charter, to relocate to 1 Science Park in New Haven.
The school petitioned the city to change a zoning ordinance to include a potential use of the land for primary and secondary schools. 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.
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.
School officials and students who lobbied alders for a zone change said that 1 Science Park is a perfect place for relocation, because of its size and proximity to its Newhallville students. Highville’s enrollment is expected to grow thanks to plans to expand the school to the 12th grade by September 2016.
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.
Here we go, the gentrification snake oil thieves are siphoning science right out of the park. My bad.