Just a few weeks ago, the new Children's Aid College Prep charter school in the South Bronx was scrounging for students and on the hunt for a principal.
No more.
Ife (pronounced “ee-fay”) Lenard, the new principal of the Children’s Aid College Prep, started her role in mid-March. Early worries about low application numbers are just a memory. Ms. Lenard said the school has received more than 300 applications for 120 spots. Now she’s looking for staff. On her must-find list: special teachers.
“I’m looking for teachers who can encourage the heart,” Ms. Lenard said in a phone interview.
To recap, Children’s Aid College Prep is the first full school by the Children’s Aid Society. The Society already provides many social services like health clinics and family support to students in New York City. The new charter plans to open with 60 kindergarten and 60 first grade students. At the enrollment lottery in early April, the charter will give special preference to local children with extra needs. The South Bronx is in one of the poorest congressional districts in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Ms. Lenard and the society held talks with parents to explain the school's goals, ran a video in many of their community centers in the neighborhood and sent representatives to everything from beauty parlors to adoption agencies to spread the word.
Ms. Lenard, 40, is familiar with the neighborhood. She’s from Manhattan, but taught biology and physics for seven years in the South Bronx -- first, at J.H.S 149 (which was closed and now houses South Bronx Prep and M.S. 223) and then at M.S. 203.
Most recently, she was the dean of students at Bronx Charter School for Excellence, just a couple of miles away.
One of their neighbors is the New Gospel Temple Church. Rodney Canion, 54, the bishop of the church, looks forward to the new school. “A lot of kids growing up in the South Bronx think the only way out of the neighborhood is basketball or running up and down the streets,” Mr. Canion said in a phone interview. “Having this new school should give them an extra chance to get out.”
Ms. Lenard plans to hire six to eight lead teachers and three to four associate teachers. She said she is looking for teachers who are passionate about reading and storytelling, are leaders and are interested in education innovation. She also wants them to foster thought-provoking discussion regardless of the challenges from the families and neighborhoods.
“Early elementary education teachers are a different kind of person, they’re cut from a different cloth,” Lenard said. “They are the heartbeat of the school. You look for that in an interview.”
As for the students, “The goal is for everyone to have proficiency. No matter where you come from, you're expected to shine.”
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect name for the school and the wrong age for the new principal.