Toledo area charter schools make plans to grow

Article published on June 15, 2012 by the Toledo Blade.

At least four new charter schools plan to enter the crowded Toledo education field next year, and an additional school with two sites in the area plans to open a new campus.

Schools are planned in a former grocery store, a downtown office building, a once-shuttered Catholic school, and at the former Masonic Temple next to the Stranahan Theater. Combined, the schools plan to enroll hundreds of students, at a time when Toledo continues to lose population. . .

Imagine Schools, a national for-profit charter school company that manages dozens of schools, plans to open its third Toledo charter. The company currently runs Clay Avenue Community School in North Toledo and the Madison Avenue School of Arts in the Uptown District. Imagine now has plans to open a charter school in the former Our Lady of Lourdes school building, 6149 Hill Ave.

Company regional director Marlene Mills said Imagine plans to lease the property from the Catholic Diocese of Toledo, and hopes to open a grades kindergarten through fourth school in the fall, with enrollment of about 225 students.

The school will have an environmentally focused curriculum, Ms. Mills said, and the property’s 17 acres is perfectly suited for the school’s intended focus.

“It’s a really beautiful piece of property,” Ms. Mills said. . .