It’s the right combination

Melrose project to combine charter school and low-income housing

A NONPROFIT giant of the South Bronx is taking the children it serves to new heights with a sprawling school development slated to open in September 2013.

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corp. is combining two areas it knows best — child care and affordable housing — when it breaks ground on a 355,000-square-foot complex that will be host to lowincome housing and the WHEDco Bard Academy Charter School.

“With the Melrose project, we are moving into a neighborhood that is going to see a great influx of new residents, and our extensive research shows that there are not enough schools,” said Davon Russell, executive vice president of WHEDco. “So purely from the standpoint of overcrowding, we knew we had to somehow address that. And we’re going to build 290 units of low-income housing that represents families with kids. . . . Here’s a place where they can go to school.”

The public hearing held by the Department of Education to open the grades 6-12 school will be held Monday night.

The City Council has appropriated $2.5 million toward construction of the complex, which has been planned for two years. The fact that the school has its own building rules out a common complaint by parents at public hearings that multiple schools are “co-located” in the same facility, Russell said.

WHEDco is partnering with Bard College, which already has a presence in competitive city high schools, to offer a rigorous liberal arts program with an emphasis on the arts. The campus will include a Bronx Music Heritage Center for education and performances.

“When we enroll kids, we look to match the demographic of the region,” said Ric Campbell, dean of teacher education at Bard. “We want to prove there are just as many geniuses and talent and smarts in the Bronx as there are anywhere else. If we do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll have kids finishing eighth grade who are highly competitive.”

The school will overlap Districts 7, 8, 9 and 12, areas that count a dearth of quality middle schools, families say.

According to the NYC Charter Center, there were roughly 11,000 applicants for about 2,500 charter school seats in the South Bronx last school year. About 77% of those applicants landed on waiting lists.

“For us, any community where there’s a major impact has to begin with education,” said Russell. “The Bronx is the best place to begin.”