Board
Facility Update – September 2014
Board Change
The Watson family joined MPA in the middle of our first year (SY
2008-09). Dawn Watson, like so many of
our parents, jumped right into things. After serving on many volunteer teams for
MPA, Dawn applied and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2011. She went on to serve on the Board’s
Development Committee and to Chair the Board’s Facility Expansion
Committee. While we accept Dawn’s Board
resignation, please join us in thanking her for her tireless years of service
to MPA.
Following Dawn’s decision, the Board shared with our community a
need to fill this Board seat with a focus on aptitude, time, and skills
supporting our facilities expansion search and development. We continue to be amazed by the achievements
and willingness to serve noted during this Board candidate application
process. Thank you to all who considered
answering the call to serve.
At the September Board meeting, Fraser Hamilton was elected to
fill the remainder of Dawn’s term and take over the lead on the Facility
Expansion Committee (FEC). The father of
2 current students and a recent MPA graduate, Fraser brings a depth of
experience in this area to the group.
Click here for further information. Please join us in welcoming Fraser to the
Board and thanking him for leading the FEC in what promises to be a very busy
and exciting year for MPA.
MPA. The Demand.
One-Campus matching our quest for excellence.
Before we get into updating on a property, there is
a moment from July’s Board meeting we would like to share. Conducting due diligence on the prior
prospective property lead to a recognition that we needed to consider a shift
in focus for MPA’s expansion plans. We
are a community school, a charter school.
Charter school model success typically leads to the eventual replication
of the school, often many times. Over
the years during our long-range planning sessions, your Board has discussed
replication in terms of our ten-year vision.
But the question was posed; “do we model ourselves or compare ourselves
to other community schools?” The answer
from the Board was that we do not.
Historically, MPA has sought out best practices
mostly from independent private schools, as well as some program aspects of
traditional public districts. Schools
such as Hawken School, Hathaway Brown, The Roeper School (a prestigious private
school for gifted children in Michigan) and our top local parochial schools embrace excellence, not expansion. They embrace a one-campus environment dedicated
to serving their mission, their students.
This is the moment MPA embraces and
owns who we dream to be. We dare to demand
the best, creative, and consistently executed whole-child educational
experience for gifted learners. We dare
to demand less trade-offs like asphalt play spaces, minimal parking, and
classroom shortages that impact our academic offerings. Coming out of our first due diligence period
we found acceptable prospects, yet we did not find a facility that could match
the powerhouse teaching and engaged learning occurring within MPA’s walls.
As we turn to discussing a new prospective property which
matches our one-campus vision, we ask our community to remember that the
process requires several steps. This may
seem to be final from a typical home purchase perspective, yet these actions
merely place us in a position to engage developers and funders as well as have
serious conversations regarding a property’s viability for MPA. We applaud MPA’s faculty, staff, and community
for their patience with the process to date.
We also empathize with knowing that a move five miles in any direction
is an additional burden for some families while being an improvement for
others. This was the case when MPA
originally left its base community in Lorain for higher enrollment prospects in
Cleveland. Above all, the Board
appreciates that even the most patient member of our community is disrupted by
uncertainty. We are committed to moving
forward on a specific site, or announcing a pause in our effort to demand a
permanent, one-campus, location for MPA, by or before 2015.
W. 53rd Campus Property
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| Site Layout |
We are in the process
of securing ownership of a campus-site property on W. 53rd street
just south of I-90 in Cleveland. Once
this is complete, we will again enter a due diligence period in order to
determine site feasibility. This site
meets our main criteria of remaining on the West side of Cleveland while being
accessible to major highways.
The site is the former Joseph & Feiss Cloth
Craft (aka Hugo Boss) factory. It offers
two buildings (one approximately 80,000 sf and the other about 25,000sf) on a
nearly 7-acre property.
The current plan is
to develop the large building with the water tower as a school building. The second building will be reviewed for potential
future uses.
The size of this property will allow us the benefits
of a campus, with the necessary green space for play areas and learning gardens
as well as an adequate parking field and room for the car line. It also affords the opportunity to expand our
model to 3 classes / grade over the next 3-5 years, which is an important
component in this project.
Both buildings on the site are on the National
Register of Historic Places, which opens doors regarding the funding of a
project of this magnitude, while also ensuring the historic nature of the
building is preserved.
Engaging
with the Community
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| Architect Rendering of possible elevation. |
As is the case with
everything MPA accomplishes, we won’t get there without the help of our
community. We have the opportunity to
create a space that is specifically designed to serve the needs of our students
with a requirement to have the work done in time for us to welcome our
community to this new home for the 2015-16 school year. We know this is an ambitious timeframe, which
is why we need each of you to engage with us and take part of this
moment in MPA’s
history. Just remember that a mere 6
years ago this month, a small group of determined parents opened MPA in just
three months’ time. Remember that a
larger group of parents met the needs of this school through their service when
finances were scarce. And that as the
school has grown, our students – your child(ren) – have reaped benefits of
talents shared in compassion, classes, or other volunteer service.
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| Cleveland skyline view from the rooftop. |
MPA is founded in a
moment. A moment when families who had
experience an all gifted, all day, education refused to give it up. A moment when each family decided for their
child(ren) that pull-outs, being labeled, low expectations, sticking out, boredom,
trying to fit in, or attempting to meet their child’s curiosities outside of
school was just not right, and chose MPA.
There are those who witnessed MPA’s first day of school, or when MPA
leased only the second floor of our current building, or the year our first
class of 8th graders moved on to high school. This is our past. Our future is in this
moment. Our future is in a renewed sense
of community at all levels. This
moment offers excitement,
curiosity, risks, and potential grand rewards.
We are all here for this moment.
The next Facility Expansion Committee (FEC) meeting
will be held on Wednesday,
September 24th at 6pm at MPA in the science room on the 2nd
floor. While we have hired a top notch
design/build team to help get this done, anyone with specialized expertise,
equipment, or knowledge in this area should be added to the resource list. Just click here to complete the
interest form. You can send an email
message to Fraser.HamiltonSr@MenloParkAcademy.com with any questions
or concerns. Be a part of founding our
renewed dream, and a new facility.
MPA’s future is right
in front of us.
