This article originally appeared in The Star-Ledger on Aug. 11, 2009.
NEWARK -- Politicians, clergy and community leaders will converge on Newark's Central Ward Wednesday to cut the ribbon on a second campus of the Robert Treat Academy -- an expansion the school's founder at first opposed.
The successful academy was designated a "Blue Ribbon School of Excellence" by the U.S. Department of Education last year, one of the highest honors bestowed upon public and private schools throughout the country. Yet despite the academy's achievements since it began in 1997 on Clifton Avenue in the North Ward, founder and longtime Newark power broker Stephen Adubato originally did not want to expand it for fear of diluting it.
"We have a jewel -- a diamond," Adubato said Monday. "The worst thing to do is spread it out."
"We are a lab -- a proving ground," he said. "But if we're going to win it's going to be in the public schools."
Adubato made a promise to his administrators not to make the Treat academy a franchise, but several forces converged to make the expansion to a William Street facility an irresistible opportunity.
In 2008, the Newark Charter School Fund received $19 million from seven charitable organizations -- including the Bill and Melinda Gates and Prudential foundations -- to strengthen and expand charter schools in Newark.
The academy's expansion was further encouraged when the Rev. Edwin Leahy, headmaster of St. Benedict's Preparatory School, was struggling to keep the doors open at St. Mary's Elementary, the oldest Catholic school in Newark. The school had built a new facility in 2001, but when the economy soured, it found itself struggling to pay the bills.
By leasing that new building to Robert Treat, St. Mary's will continue to operate on the grounds of St. Benedict's and the two schools will share facilities as needed.
Sarah Simonis/For The Star-LedgerPrincipal Mike Pallante on the first day of schoola t the new Robert Treat Academy Central in Newark.
"I think it provides an opportunity that hasn't yet come about for a public-private partnership in a very unique way," Leahy said of the shared campus.
Like Adubato, Leahy has been a fixture in Newark education for decades. Recognizing a private Catholic school partnering with a public charter school may seem incongruous, both men say they recognize the importance of collaboration.
"The world is shrinking, and the city needs to shrink," Leahy said.
When asked his view on the academy's secular philosophy, he said, "The church is about being of service to the people where they are."
"Anything that can provide alternatives for our kids is worthwhile," Leahy added.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker has been another key advocate of the institution and helped ease the way for its expansion.
"We are seeing Newark at its absolute best and are proud that the Robert Treat Academy is expanding its enrollment to the families of our Central Ward," Booker said in a statement.
Like Adubato, Booker has long been an advocate of strengthening Newark's public schools.
"Nurturing and teaching our children are central pillars of my administration's efforts to transform Newark into a stronger, safer and prouder city," the mayor said.
These "pillars" are part of the philosophy that academy staff and administrators point to as its primary avenue to success. The school day begins at 8:30 a.m. with a short assembly at which students proclaim the school's motto, "To learn, to work hard, to be the best you can be, and to be kind to one another."
This school year, the William Street facility will be open for kindergartners and first-graders only. Each year, the school will add a grade until it's operating classes for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. By getting children as they begin their academic careers, the school is able to infuse them with a "culture of learning" and minimize distractions.
"You come here to learn," academy principal Michael Pallante said. "Nothing else."
Pallante, like several Robert Treat administrators, is a veteran of the Newark school system. The students the academy turns out are of a higher academic quality, administrators say, but not because they are any more gifted than their neighbors.
"They are average kids achieving way beyond what they normally could achieve," Pallante said.
Twins Katherine and Kathleen Morales, 16, were early graduates of the original kindergarten through eighth grade school and now attend Choate in Wallingford, Conn., one of the most exclusive boarding schools in the country. They were at the new campus Monday to welcome the incoming students, who begin their academic year a few weeks ahead of public school students.
The Morales girls said they grew up in various Newark neighborhoods and their parents barely finished high school. But because of their experience at Robert Treat, they said, they belonged to a different world.
Adubato said he is eager to make sure students like the Morales twins are not an exception in Newark and to work with other public schools to close the educational divide.
He pointed to gang violence, teen pregnancy, AIDS and drug addiction as symptoms of the systemic failure of urban schools and cast inner-city classrooms as a battleground.
"The biggest crime in urban America is inadequate education," Adubato said. "It's a bloodless murder."
The ceremonial opening of the William Street school will take place Wednesday at 11 a.m.
