By Bryan Schwartzman
Organizers of a new public charter school slated to open in September have found a temporary home in a Springfield Gardens church, following a search that lasted several months.
The new Merrick Academy-Queens Public Charter School will be housed for one school year in the annex of the Springfield Gardens United Methodist Church, said Eric Hayer, a spokesman for Victory Schools, an educational management company contracted to run the school.
“We hope the location is temporary,” Hayer said, adding that officials were looking for a permanent site in southeast Queens.
A charter school is a public school designed to improve education, started by parents and educators in a community and overseen by the state Charter Schools Institute along with the State University of New York.
The location was supposed to have been announced by June 15, but the SUNY board of trustees granted officials an extension.
The church annex already has five classrooms set up, because it has been used for an after-school program. Hayer said five classes with a total of 125 students from kindergarten through second grade will start in the fall. “We will operate on the same schedule as any other public school,” he said.
Sources have said that rent for the school would generate a considerable amount of money for the host church.
Hayer said that when the school moves into its permanent location, enrollment should increase to about 450 students and take in more grades.
The 125 students were chosen earlier this year in a lottery held by school officials. Parents interested in sending their children to the school can add their names to the waiting list, and another lottery will be held next year.
Hayer said the principal, Alma Alston, is concluding interviews to hire full-time teachers.
Connie Cullen, a spokeswoman for the Charter Schools Institute, said teachers are employees of the school in which they work and negotiate salaries and benefits individually with the charter school's board of trustees.
Last month plans to locate the school at the Allen AME Cathedral in St. Albans fell through because it would have been housed in the church's basement with no windows.
Several other prospective locations for the school have fallen through, including a site in Springfield Gardens owned by developer Forest City Ratner, which was supposed to become a shopping center anchored by a multiplex movie theater.
School officials dismissed the Springfield Gardens site because it was clear the project would not be completed in time for the opening of school. Forest City Ratner later announced it would not be building a multiplex at the site and planned to sell the land to Home Depot.
Bruce Ratner, owner of Forest City Ratner, sits on the school's board of trustees along with several elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) and City Councilwoman Juanita Watkins (D-Laurelton).
The application for the charter school also had faced opposition from the state Board of Regents on the grounds that there was not enough community involvement in applying for the charter.
But the charter was ultimately granted by the SUNY board of trustees, which under the Charter Schools Act has the power to issue a charter without the approval of the Board of Regents.
