Plan to expand K-6 school faces opposition in Richfield

The proposed expansion of a thriving Richfield K-6 charter school that serves mostly Latino students has drawn criticism from some residents who believe the site at 72nd Street and Penn Avenue is too small for the mixed-use development.

"You can't put all this in that spot unless it's against the street," said longtime Richfield resident Jay Hermann, who lives near the proposed site, now an unused portion of B'Nai Emet Cemetery. The school's sponsor, Project for Pride in Living, "is a good outfit, nothing against them, but they're going in the wrong direction," he said.

Hermann was one of more than 70 residents who packed St. Nicholas Episcopal Church on Penn Avenue on Wednesday night to learn more about the proposal. Since October, people who live near the cemetery have had seven meetings with city officials to talk about what could be built on the 2.7 acres of vacant land.

Project for Pride in Living (PPL) sponsors Partnership Academy, a K-6 charter school that's currently located at the Church of the Assumption in Richfield.

Chris Wilson, the agency's development director, said it has drafted a preliminary purchase agreement for the site with B'Nai Emet Synagogue of St. Louis Park.

Too much for neighborhood?

PPL is a nonprofit agency that assists low-income families with housing and education. It hopes to construct a new home for the charter school, a community resource center and 30 affordable two- and three-bedroom apartments on the Richfield site. However, Wilson said the agency doesn't want to proceed without community input.

City officials told residents that PPL and the school were interested in the property when meetings began last fall, said John Stark, the city's assistant director of community development.

He said residents have been concerned about the density of any project and how it would affect traffic in the area. As far as he knows, he said, there's been no objection to the school itself. "Everything I've heard about the school, I've been impressed with," Stark said.

City officials said one reason a community center or a school makes sense for the site is that the cemetery land is already off the tax rolls. Richfield wouldn't lose any money if a nontaxable development were built there. The site is already zoned institutional, a category that includes schools, Stark said.

However, some residents who attended Wednesday's meeting questioned the need for additional rental units or a community center in Richfield.

Tom and Julayne Johnson don't object to the school but said they'd be more comfortable with the project if the community center and apartments were removed. They said they worry the project could change the residential character of the neighborhood and increase traffic.

Partnership Academy Executive Director Lisa LaDue said the charter school currently serves about 260 students, about 70 percent of whom live in Richfield.

"We're not trying to overtake the Richfield schools," LaDue said. "We're serving a key niche for Richfield families."

Since 2002, the school's enrollment has almost doubled and shifted from consisting of mostly African-American students to more than 87 percent Latino students. The Richfield School District has experienced similar demographic shifts since 2000, as its Latino population grew from 6.7 percent of its overall enrollment to more than 23 percent in 2006.

LaDue said Partnership Academy's popularity among Richfield's Latino residents has spread by word of mouth. The new site would allow the school to add grades seven and eight, but enrollment is not likely to exceed 420 students, LaDue said.

Parent Celsa Alcantara of Richfield, who attended Wednesday's meeting, said her son Aaron, a third-grader, has attended the school since kindergarten. She likes the fact that it's small, emphasizes discipline and has several staff members who speak Spanish. "I like the staff. They're very patient," she said.

Wilson said Project for Pride in Living will hold another meeting next month at the same location to give residents a better idea of what the development might look like.

"We want to think of this as the beginning of a dialogue," Wilson said. "Let's get it all out on the table."