Maximizing Capital Dollars: Practical Lessons from New Charter Schools’ Facilities

Concerns about facilities have hampered many charter schools during their start-up period because they distract school leadership from more education-oriented concerns such as hiring and curriculum development. In addition, the imperfect solutions often impact the daily schedule and curricular offerings. In order to help charter schools overcome these obstacles, the New York City Department of Education allocated $250 million in its five year (FY05-FY09) Capital Plan to develop charter school facilities.

In light of this opportunity for charter schools to build facilities, the Harlem Children's Zone, Inc. and Civic Builders, two non-profit organizations with experience in building facilities for charter schools, jointly authored this brief to share their experiences, offer suggestions and encourage schools and designers to build facilities that nurture existing or potential partnerships.