Thomas Breen photo
ECMS’ new chicken coop.
495 Blake St., newly bought by Elm City Montessori.
Elm City Montessori purchased its Blake Street school building for over $5.2 million, as the local anti-racist, outdoor-learning-themed charter school puts down roots in the shadow of West Rock.
That charter school building purchase was among the city’s latest property transactions. (Click here for the full list.)
According to the city land records database, on Oct. 4, Elm City Montessori Inc. paid David and Paula Perrotti’s Blake Street Center Associates LLC $5,257,000 to purchase the two-story brick office building at 495 Blake St.
The city last appraised the 4‑acre property bounded by Blake Street, Valley Street, the West River, and West Rock as worth $5,102,500.
Elm City Montessori Executive Director Eliza Halsey told the Independent that the school’s purchase of the Blake Street property that it has rented for the past three years allows it to “have a permanent home in the West Rock neighborhood,” and to continue building out a “safe and vibrant space for children and families in the area.”
Elm City Montessori’s Blake Street campus.
Founded in 2014 in Fair Haven, Elm City Montessori moved to 495 Blake St. in 2018. It currently has 43 full-time staff members and 283 students in grades PreK through 7th grade, with plans to add an 8th grade next year.
Elm City Montessori is the district’s only “local charter school”.
That means that its certified teachers are New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) employees, its charter is approved and it receives funding through the city Board of Education and the state Department of Education, and it works closely with the local public school district. As a charter school, it also has its own Board of Trustees that governs the school.
Emily Hays photo
Pandemic-era outdoor learning at ECMS in January.
Chris Peak photo
ECMS Principal Julia Webb, ABAR Director Amelia Sherwood, Executive Director Eliza Halsey, and parent/board member Jose Cuapio.
Halsey said that the Blake Street school property is “ideal” for the Montessori approach to learning at the core of the school’s mission — that is, “for connecting with nature as well as the surrounding community.”
The school kept in-person education going throughout the pandemic by moving classes outdoors to supplement remote learning. Halsey said that the school recently launched a land-based “Erdkinder Program” for seventh graders, added a chicken coop to its property, plans to expand its student work with gardens, and already partners closely with Common Ground, the city parks department, and Gather New Haven.
Owning the Blake Street property will allow the school to double down on that type of hands-on outdoor education, she said.
Emily Hays file photo
ECMS students commemorating the 1963 Children’s March in May.
David Weinreb photo
ECMS’s kids vaccination clinic on Wednesday.
Halsey also said that the property purchase will free up time and resources for the school to dig deeper in its anti-bias, anti-racist (ABAR) work. “We really want to be making increasing investments in that ABAR work,” she said. Buying the Blake Street property “helps us to do that. Being in a permanent place allows us to deepen our relationships with our neighbors.”
Some of that community-focused work has included launching a “One Book, One School” anti-prejudice program, organizing student-led protests against police brutality and a commemoration of the 1963 Children’s March, and hosting vaccination clinics for children ages 5 to 11.
“This is really an opportunity in having some permanency in continuing to develop that work,” Halsey said. “Our vision for this school is really to be that partner in the community.”
Halsey said that the school has some minor internal renovations planned for 495 Blake St. now that it owns the property. “We don’t expect any major differences in the early stages,” she said.
“We do want to be engaging in the wider community,” she added, “as we think about opportunities for being there more permanently, and about how we can be a partner.”
According to the city land records database, Elm City Montessori took out a $3,425,000 loan from New Haven Bank on Oct. 26, a separate $700,000 loan from New Haven Bank on Oct. 20, and a $650,000 loan from the Meriden-based Community Economic Development Fund on Oct. 20 for the 495 Blake St. property.
See below for a roundup of other recent property sales. Click here for a separate story on that roundup.
New Haven land records database
This is very nice and hope the school flourishes in this location. Does anyone know if this parcel of private property extends all the way to the West River? I used to enjoy crossing the small footbridge near Blake Street and then continuing my walk between the river and the playground area enclosed by the green fencing. This would bring me to the other small bridge closest to the ball fields. I had assumed this was a public passageway along the West River but this space has recently been completely occupied by the school - an example of this practice can be seen in the Emily Hays photo in the above article. Perhaps I was wrong about this being a public area, however in that case I'm not sure I understand why the City would construct two bridges that connect West Rock Park to a parcel of private property.