According to Suffolk Education, the company recently broke ground and began renovations and construction of a new $39.6 million facility to house the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School. The Suffolk team is renovating an existing, three-story mill building and warehouse in the Hyde Park neighborhood, and constructing a 20,000 s/f addition.
Suffolk Education's project team is partnering with Janey Co. on the construction of the school. Designed by HMFH, the new facility is scheduled to open to students in September 2010.
The Boston Renaissance Charter Public School is one of the largest charter schools in the city, serving children from 10 city neighborhoods. The school is divided into three smaller schools, consisting of the Kinder School for grades K1 and K2, the Primary School for grades 1 through 3, and the Elementary School, for grades 4, 5 and 6. Classrooms for each of these smaller schools will be housed on a separate floor of the mill building. The warehouse building will house a gymnasium, a cafeteria, a multimedia center, music classrooms and dance studios. The addition will contain a new administrative wing, the K1 wing, a connecting corridor and support facilities.
Suffolk Education is reaching out to the community to recruit local participants for the school's construction. Suffolk held a town meeting on May 12, at Suffolk's training facility to attract and employ minority workers and independent contractors on this project. The team is also working closely with school officials to employ parents of students who are either interested in construction work or have construction experience.
"The leadership of Suffolk CEO John Fish and his team guarantees that the project will be of the highest possible quality and the community's needs are met." said Dr. Roger Harris superintendent and CEO of the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School.