Elm City Prep To Consolidate

By next summer, the Achievement First charter network will vacate and sell the Newhallville building currently housing half of Elm City College Preparatory Middle School, according to a plan approved Wednesday night.

Seventh and eighth graders who are now at 794 Dixwell Ave. will move back across the city to 407 James St. in Fair Haven with the rest of the school’s Grade K‑6 students.

The board of directors for Elm City College Preparatory (ECCP) unanimously approved that consolidation at a Wednesday night meeting at Achievement First’s network offices.

Officials said that, aside from initial move-in costs, the decision will save ECCP about $750,000 annually for the next five years on its philanthropy-dependent budget, buying Achievement First time to advocate for the state to create a unified school funding formula.

“We are doubling down on advocacy and fundraising. We feel confident that’s eventually going to produce results for us, but it’s always the slowest path to changing our funding outlook, getting more allies to understand our particular challenge of that funding level,” said Victor De La Paz, the network’s chief financial officer. ​“It’s just not going to help us for next year.”

Charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately managed, currently receive $11,250 per student from the state. Aside from the costs of special education and transportation that are covered by the local school district, charter schools need to fund-raise for the rest.

To keep its 37 schools open across three states, Achievement First currently needs to solicit about $17 million from donors each year — a figure it’s trying to trim down by $1 million over the next two yeas, De La Paz said.

Achievement First turned down other many ideas that might’ve gotten it there, including closing schools, ending transportation for Amistad High students from Bridgeport, and freezing pay increases for teachers, De La Paz said.

“We’re trying to reduce our reliance on philanthropy, but we’re trying to do things that will not harm our schools,” De La Paz said. ​“There’s a lot of things that are possible, but ultimately this particular idea, given the size of the school and its particular reliance on philanthropy, is the one that felt most doable.”

Donors kick in $6,830 per student for ECCP’s middle school, nearly double any other Achievement First school in Connecticut, said Amanda Pinto, a spokesperson. That allows the middle school to spends $19,953 per student, maintaining a 12.8‑to‑1 ratio of teachers to students, according to this year’s budget documents.

Having separate buildings wasn’t ​“sustainable,” said Laura Saverin, one of ECCP’s board members.

The consolidation will allow Achievement First to shift its funding around, as income from the sale of the Dixwell Avenue building, appraised at $7.41 million by the city, will be spread out over five years.

The building isn’t officially on the market yet, but De La Paz said that he’d spoken with other schools with ​“local challenges” that had him feeling ​“bullish and positive” about a finding a buyer.

(Booker T. Washington Academy, a charter school that’s outgrown its State Street location, has been looking for a permanent home as far away as Hamden.)

About two-thirds of ECCP’s staff support the consolidation, said Dacia Toll, Achievement First’s co-founder and co-CEO.

Toll said the main worries she’s heard are that K‑8 students won’t sit well together on the buses, that the James Street building won’t have enough space, especially in the gym, and that teachers won’t have anywhere to park.

She added, though, that the move will allow the seventh and eighth graders, who could feel ​“isolated,” to participate in extra-curriculars like a robotics team, a concert band and a dance troupe.

In the next few months, an architectural firm will help to renovate the James Street building to add two more grades, putting up walls and adding bathrooms, said Ketki Harale, the network’s senior facilities director.

“Amongst a set of hard choices, this is the best of bad options,” Toll said, adding that her own kids go to ECCP’s elementary school. ​“I’d like to believe I operate like this all the time, but I am truly evaluating this as I would for my own children.”