Marblehead charter school eyes expansion

MARBLEHEAD – The Marblehead Community Charter Public School has a chance for a major expansion next year – and a special task force is studying that possibility.The grades 4-8, 230-student school currently uses 24,112 square feet of space at 17 Lime St. The school’s landlord, Soundown Corp., has approached the school board about changing its lease to include the rest of the building, another 7,321 square feet – adding a little less than a third more space to the area the school currently uses.Soundown is offering a long-term lease starting Jan. 1, 2010. There are currently 180 students on the waiting list to get into the MCCPS.In response to the request, board members created an Expansion Task Force at their Feb. 26 meeting. Board chair Emil Ronchi called “a blue ribbon task force” to see if – and how – the school can use the extra space.”With a waiting list of 180 students and an opportunity to lease additional space in the remainder of our building,” Ronchi wrote in an open letter to school parents, “what to do? Expand! Maybe. Or, maybe not.”The task force is expected to be named shortly. It is scheduled to report its recommendation on the lease to the board by May and be dissolved in June, unless the board decides otherwise. As Ronchi said, “This is happening in real time.”The board is seeking as many as three best uses of the additional space, any structural changes that may be needed and proposals that will keep the expansion revenue-neutral, and they want to know how the expansion could affect enrollment, grade structure and class offerings.