PARKSIDE—The MATCH Charter Public School is creating a new elementary school in Jamaica Plain for K1 students and 2nd graders later this year. It will also move its middle school from Wachusett Street to 215 Forest Hills St. for the 2012 school year, as Parkside Academy moves out.
The school recently signed a purchase and sale agreement for the Forest Hills Street property, which would become the permanent home for its middle school. The space is currently owned by Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which leases it to the Parkside Christian Academy. Bethel AME is also the landlord of MATCH middles school’s current location.
This fall, MATCH will lease space from Bethel AME for 100 elementary school students, who will share the building with Parkside Christian students, MATCH Executive Director Alan Safran told the Gazette.
In fall 2012, MATCH, as the new owners, would move its 300 middle school students to 215 Forest Hills St. The elementary school would then “be on the move, looking for its permanent home,” Safran said.
Safran previously told the Gazette that MATCH would not be moving into the newly-vacant Agassiz School building at 20 Child St.
“I can completely shoot that down…I have not had one moment of conversation or thought about that,” he said.
What the Parkside Academy will do once it is homeless is not yet known. Also unclear is the future of MATCH’s current home, a school building on Bethel AME’s campus.
Gazette phone calls to Bethel AME and Parkside Christian Academy were not returned.
The MATCH middle school has been located at 86 Wachusett St. since August 2008. The school planned to occupy the site for two to three years before it found a permanent home. It also operates a high school in Allston.
MATCH will present a proposal and answer questions at a community meeting to be held on June 27. [See JP Agenda.]