Paterson schools consider classroom space at Center City mall

by Patricia Alex and Barabara Boucicaut
NorthJersey.com

The Paterson school district, grappling with a classroom space crunch, is in talks with the developer of the Center City Mall about leasing space for high school programs in the downtown retail center.

School officials are looking for a new home for the HARP Academy – a health professions high school located in the Main Street Mall, said Schools Superintendent Donnie W. Evans.

Evans said HARP's location is "substandard" and that he wants to get students into a better building. The academy uses class space in the retail mall, which fronts on Main Street with an entrance to classrooms near the intersection of Washington Street and College Boulevard.

The move might permit the district to expand enrollment at HARP, which now has about 250 students, Evans said. He said the district is aiming to relocate the academy in time for the start of school in the fall of 2011.

Irene Sterling, executive director of the Paterson Education Fund, agreed that HARP's facilities are inadequate. For a school that focuses on the health professions, the Main Street space has no labs for hands-on study, she said.

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