profiles | people, places & goings-on in education facilities and business
Girls' high school in the Bronx is saved from closure
A Catholic girls high school in New York City has been spared from closure after a foundation agreed to buy the property and lease it back to the school.
The Bronx Times reports that Preston High School in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx will be purchased by the Bally’s Foundation, which is affiliated with the gaming company that seeks to develop a casino complex at nearby Ferry Point Park.
But following sustained public pressure from students, parents, and notable alumnae such as Jennifer Lopez, the Sisters changed course and accepted the deal.
The agreement calls for Bally’s Foundation to buy Preston’s waterfront property for $8.5 million, lease it back to the school for $1 per year on a 25-year lease with five-year renewals and pay up to $1.6 million for infrastructure repairs and legal fees.
Former CEO of Indiana school receives $269,218 to settle wrongful termination suit
The former CEO of an Indianapolis, Indiana, school who contended that he was wrongfully terminated is receiving a $269,218 settlement award.
A federal judge has approved the judgment in favor of Nathan Tuttle, who was CEO of the Edison School of the Arts until March 2023 when he was fired after using a racial slur in front of students.
WRTV-TV reports that Tuttle conceded in his lawsuit that he said the n-word, but said he was only repeating what a student had said to emphasize that the word was in violation of the school’s Code of Conduct.
Tuttle contends in the lawsuit that certain Edison administrators, teachers and staff members organized a student protest in which students chanted homophobic slurs and other insults at Tuttle, who is a gay White man.
“The Board terminated Tuttle—in violation of his contract, without just cause, and without due process—at the pinnacle of his career and in a manner fraught with discrimination and career-destroying falsehoods,” the lawsuit asserted.
Loyola University Chicago is tearing down its oldest residence hall
Loyola University Chicago is planning to tear down the oldest residence hall on its Lake Shore campus to make way for a facility for its nursing school.
The university says that demolition of Campion Hall, which opened in 1954, will begin in June.
As the oldest residence hall on Loyola’s campus, Campion Hall has become a maintenance and environmental burden because of its outdated operating systems and deteriorating condition.
"It costs significant money and resources to maintain while remaining one of the least desirable choices for students," the university says.
In place of Campion Hall, Loyola is developing plans for a center for nursing and science that will serve as a home for the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, a four-year undergraduate program.
Performing arts charter school in California is closing
The Contra Costa School of Performing Arts, a charter school established in 2016 in Walnut Creek, California, for grades 6 to 12, is closing.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the 42,000-square-foot facility has capacity for 725 students, but its highest enrollment, in 2018-19, was just 471. By last year, that figure had declined to 361.
“As a public school, enrollment is necessary for us to be financially viable, and we are not at a level where we could make the finances work for us," says Heather Vega, chair of the school’s governing board.
The 4.5-acre property is for sale with a listing price of $16,975,000.
Mel Martinez, associate director of the school’s theater program, described the school as a safe space for students who are queer, Hispanic or unorthodox.
“(For) a lot of them, this is the place where they can come and really be themselves and be called by their preferred pronouns and their preferred names,” she said.