New Boston Renaissance Charter School Progressing
– by Brian McPherson, Project Manager
Boston, MA – Suffolk Education began work on the new Boston Renaissance Charter Public School this summer. The Suffolk team is renovating an existing, three-story mill building and warehouse in the Hyde Park section of Boston and constructing a 20,000sf addition that will connect the two buildings.
Suffolk has partnered with Janey Construction Management & Consulting to form a uniquely strong and experienced management team.
The Boston Renaissance Charter Public School is the largest charter school in Boston, serving 1,250 students from 10 city neighborhoods. The school consists of the Kinder School for grades K1 and K2, the Primary School for grades 1 through 3, and the Elementary School, for grades 4, 5 and 6. The new state-of-the-art facility will include classrooms for each of these smaller schools on separate floors of the existing mill building.
The warehouse building is being renovated to house a gymnasium, a cafeteria, a multimedia center, music classrooms and dance studios. The connecting addition will contain a new administrative wing, the K1 wing, a connecting corridor and support facilities. In addition, the Suffolk Education team will install outdoor play areas and a recess area which will encompass 3.2 acres.
The Suffolk team wanted to include the local community as much as possible in the building of the new school. In order to recruit local subcontractors for the school’s construction, Suffolk Education’s team held a town hall meeting at Suffolk’s Training facility in Boston. The purpose of the meeting was to expose minority contractors to potential opportunities and encourage their participation in the bidding process on this project.
Through these efforts, Suffolk was able to create opportunities for seven local minority subcontractors to work on various aspects of construction, including project management, steel erection, site utilities, carpentry and cleaning. The team is also working closely with school officials potentially to employ parents of students who are either interested in construction work or have construction experience. Opportunities for two local residents through our walk-in application process were also created during these early stages of the project.
Work on the new school is progressing as scheduled, and Suffolk Education will complete the facility in time for the beginning of the 2010 school year.
