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This summer a Newark charter school will vacate the space it has rented from the city’s public schools for more than a decade, the latest move in the district’s push to reclaim school properties as enrollment rebounds.
People’s Preparatory Charter School will leave its location inside the Bard Early College High School building following a nearly four-year legal battle with Newark Public Schools over whether the school breached its contract by using more space than permitted under the lease, failing to pay past rent for the extra space, and, ultimately, interfering with the expansion of Bard.
The departure, set to happen by July 15, will allow the public school district to increase enrollment at Bard this fall, the district has said. It also reflects a step forward in Superintendent Roger León’s strategy to reclaim public school buildings and expand the district as student enrollment has increased over recent years.