Old Friends School - site for College Park Academy
In tomorrow’s work session, the Council will discuss a few items in preparation to start its operation in 2013-2014 school year.
The City Council has, over the past year, been working with the University of Maryland and the College Park City-University Partnership to establish a charter school in College Park.
This school will be open to anyone in Prince George’s County but will be located in College Park. A Committee, which includes the Mayor and Councilmember Catlin and Mitchell, and representatives from University and the Partnership, submitted an application to the Prince George’s County Board of Education for approval of the Charter School, which was granted.
The next step was to find a location, and the Partnership has long been considering using the old Friends School on Calvert Road, which is owned by the City and currently used as offices for the City’s Public Services Department. The school needs significant renovation and a new HVAC system to be usable as a school, but the Partnership has been working with architects to come up with some ideas.
The Council will be discussing the architect’s proposals for renovating the school and how we can work together with the University to finance the renovations. The goal is to open the school for the 2013-14 school year, so the Committee hopes to move forward with the proposal quickly.