An 11-acre parcel on Highland Avenue, once the site of a Chester Housing Authority development, will soon become home to a beautiful new K-12 public school, Chester Charter School for the Arts (CCSA).During a groundbreaking ceremony on a sun-splashed day, CHA executive Director Steven A. Fischer joined Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland and other city officials in welcoming the CCSA community to the neighborhood.
The Chester Housing Authority is proud to have found the right buyer for this valuable piece of real estate," Fischer said in his remarks to the well attended ceremony."This 12-plus acres of land, on which we stand today, has always had the potential to be the anchor of the most densely populated section of Chester – its West Side. It has been well documented that various ideas and themes have been strategized for this site along what has seemed like a long journey at sea.
The ship has landed and a school shall be the anchor."Although the entire site measures 12 acres, CHA had previously agreed to sell slightly more than an acre of the property to a retail store that will reside next door to the school. The proceeds CHA received from the sale of the parcel will be used to improve over CHA properties.CCSA, which now has its campus just outside of Chester but serves the Chester-Upland school district's children, is the top-performing school in the district, based on state testing results. It also boasts a 96% attendance rate, impressive for this very impoverished city. The new building will allow CCSA to expand to include high school.
That is great news for a community that includes CHA families on all sides of the property, including homeowners and renters."The Chester Housing Authority could not be more pleased, that the developer of its land will occupy the space to educate, and thereby make better, the next generations – today's children," Fischer said.
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