Lynn won’t peddle Ford Annex

LYNN – At least two of the groups proposing new charter schools in the Greater Lynn area have inquired into purchasing the newly-vacated Ford School Annex building, but the city says the former union hall is not for sale.The proposed Lynn Preparatory School, North Shore Academy of Science and Bridge Smart Preparatory Charter School are all looking to gain approval from the state and open new charters somewhere in the Greater Lynn area, and the vacant Bennett Street building would be a good student-ready location option.Closed last spring because of budget cuts, Lynn Public School and Inspectional Services Department employees are still in the process of cleaning the building out, meaning there would be minimal renovation and conversion work needed if a charter group were to purchase the building.Although he did not specify which schools called, Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. said two of the proposed charters are among several organizations that have inquired into the availability of the building, all of whom have been turned away.”There have been inquiries made into the building, I believe a few of the charter schools that were proposed were looking in to it,” he said. “But I have no plans to do anything with that building right now other than to keep it and monitor how our schools continue to grow.”Clancy said that the Ford Annex, along with the former Fallon Elementary School on Robinson St, which closed in 2008, will remain in the city’s possession for the immediate future.The city also still owns the former O’Keefe School on North Franklin Street, which was also closed in 2008.”Just like the Fallon School we are going to hang on to that,” he said. “Even if we were to try and sell it, the building would first be transferred to the sellable list, and as far as I know we have not done that.”A former General Electric Building, the annex was home to IUE/CWA Local 201 for several years before the city took the land by eminent domain in the late 1990s.Since that time, the Ford Annex has housed the Robert L. Ford K-8’s grades 5-8, while students in grades K-4 attended school at the Ford’s Hollingsworth Street headquarters.Due to budget cuts, the Ford has been scaled back to a K-5 program this year. The Annex closed and all of the middle school students have been transferred to the Marshall, Pickering and Breed middle schools.Just weeks after Gov. Deval Patrick controversially lifted a cap on charter schools in urban districts, four schools stepped up with proposals to serve the students in Lynn. Only the Lynn Preparatory School noted that it would definitely be located in Lynn.Selling the building to a charter school would not necessarily be in the best interest of the city, which has fought the expansion of charter schools because of the high cost associated with funding the pseudo-public schools.The city loses a portion of local aid for every student that leaves the public schools in favor of a charter, a cost that is already high in Lynn with the existence of the KIPP Academy charter on Bessom Street.The state has not approved any charter proposals as of Aug. 28.