After spending its first two years in a converted church classroom building on Taylor Street NE, the Northeast College Prep (NECP) school, about to begin its third year of operation, is heading to a much larger building. The site, at 300 Industrial Blvd., last occupied by the Emily O. Goodridge-Grey Accelerated Elementary School, is on the southern edge of the Mid-City Industrial Neighborhood. The area is home to numerous large and small manufacturing, industrial, commercial, healthcare and high tech companies, and approximately 2,500 residents.
The building was purchased with $3.6 million in financing from the Charter Schools Development Corporation (CSDC), a nonprofit real estate services provider for charter schools nationwide. CSDC is also funding the $2.8 million restoration and will own and lease the property to NECP.
The structure, built in 1971, has 34,000 square feet of first-floor space for classrooms, a cafeteria, gym, and offices. Interior construction is nearly complete, and is on schedule to be ready for the opening of the fall term on Wednesday, August 31. The school now has a kindergarten through fifth-grade program and plans to add a higher grade in each of the next three years.
NECP is also planning expansion into a middle school, ideally within the building’s unused space.
A grant from Target Corporation will pay for two outdoor playgrounds, a pre-K play area and a school garden.
Carl Phillips is NECP director and founder, and Erika Sass its assistant director. Phillips and Sass met while teaching at Lighthouse Academy of Nations, a South Minneapolis high school, in 2007. Phillips entered the Charter School Partners Fellowship Program in July 2012 and completed a residency at Global Academy as the basis for leading Northeast College Prep. He hired Sass and in 2014 NECP opened as a K-3 Minneapolis public charter school.
The school has applied for authorization from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a worldwide educational association whose curriculum, according to their website, emphasizes inquiry, critical thinking, and personal development.
Sass said IB officials will visit the school this fall as part of the authorization process. She noted that nearby Edison High School uses the same program, and sees NECP as a source of future Edison students. Sass also said that, although the school is open to any student in the city, 75 percent of students come from Northeast or North Minneapolis.
Sass listed what she called “three pillars” of teaching at NECP: Academic, Social and Emotional development. She said that emphasis is placed on developing a global view of the world, and all students study Arabic and Spanish languages, in addition to English.
Moving day is Saturday, Aug. 20, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for August 24. Sass said that she expects 350-400 people to participate in a volunteer playground-building day on September 16.
Below: NECP West Entrance (Photo by Mark Peterson)
