University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men, an all-boys charter school in Rochester, is abandoning its plan to move to a property on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit and instead is focusing on a former charter school building on the city’s west side.
School CEO Walter Larkin Jr. informed the board of trustees of the decision in December, according to recently published meeting minutes. It puts an end to a contentious and drawn-out battle between the school and Irondequoit residents who opposed its relocation there.
U Prep is located in a 39,000 square foot space on Lake Road. The East Ridge Road site is a 65,000 square foot commercial property that is mostly vacant. The school settled on that site for a potential move and expansion after searching fruitlessly within city limits, Larkin said.
‘We’re taken aback’: Response to thinly veiled racist accusations
Residents in Irondequoit immediately raised objections. Some were based on traffic flow and other logistical concerns; others were thinly veiled racist accusations about “vastly increased crime” that would follow the school, whose student body is almost entirely Black and brown.