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Close Neighborhood Ties

As principal of one of the city’s oldest charter schools, Melanie Bryon is entitled to a rare treat: visits from the oldest alumni of Community Partnership Charter School, who are in 8th grade.

“That these students come back and share stories and continue to have us as part of our lives is a testament to the success of the school community,” said Bryon, who was a founding teacher and has been principal since 2005.

A further testament to the charter’s success is that many of these students went to selective middle schools.

A dedicated group of Brooklyn parents and the Beginning with Children Foundation founded Community Partnership in 2000 as an alternative to the local elementary schools. Drawing on the Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and Clinton Hill neighborhoods, the school started out with 100 students in kindergarten and 1st grade and now has an enrollment of 288 in kindergarten through 5th grade, about 90 percent of whom are African-American.

“Our mission,” Bryon said, “is for high academics for all students through a rich, nurturing environment which provides experiences beyond academics.”

Combining traditional academic rigor with a progressive, child-centered approach is a hard balance for any school to strike, but Community Partnership has managed to maintain it while performing well above standards for its district. Ghana Hylton, parent of 3rd-grader and budding artist Adanna Hylton, attributes this success to the fact that the school is responsive to parents. “They keep good things and, if something isn’t right, they tweak it a little more quickly than the public schools do,” she said.

One way the school fulfills its goal of going “beyond academics” is by maintaining a jam-packed schedule of field trips. Students go everywhere from the local police and fire stations to Washington D.C. for the 5th grade’s culminating unit on government. Community Partnership also stays true to its name by working with families and local organizations and businesses. Every Friday, from 8:15 to 9 a.m., the school invites family members to read with the younger grades. Grandparents, cousins and parents come in, and the children are incredibly pleased to share their work with grown-ups, especially “someone else’s grown-up,” Bryon said.

During that time, 4th- and 5th-graders attend “Senior Academy,” an electives program that allows children to focus on areas such as video animation, fine arts book clubs. Every other month the academy alternates between visiting a relevant local college program and place of business. The Senior Academy Artists, for instance, will visit Pratt Institute one month and a local graphic arts studio the next.

“There are strong partnerships at each grade level,” Bryon said.

One of the most exciting programs is American Ballet Theater’s “Make A Ballet,” in which 4th- and 5th-graders take dance lessons and then design, choreograph, produce and perform a ballet at the Met. This year they are working on an adaptation of “Othello.” The project will provide children with a wide range of experiences—from measuring sets to writing grant proposals—that builds on classroom academics.

—Nancy Brandwein