Facing stiff opposition, Riverhead Charter School drops plans for Sound Avenue farmland

The Riverhead Charter School has dropped its plan to build a school campus on vacant farmland along Sound Avenue in Northville.

Charter school board president David Edwards said in a letter to the community that the school is withdrawing its bid to buy the property after stiff opposition and intense debate, including “direct attacks on our students,” affected charter school students’ “psychological safety.”

The charter school board has made “the tough decision to withdraw our bid on Potato Acres,” Edwards wrote in a letter emailed to RiverheadLOCAL this morning. Read the letter here.

“Though our plans to expand our physical presence have met obstacles, our spirit remains indomitable. The decision to step back from the property bid with Potato Land LLC was made with heavy hearts, but our resolve to find a new space—a new home for our growing family—stands firm,” Edwards wrote.

The Riverhead Charter School’s announcement comes amidst sharp opposition to its plan by some local residents, the Riverhead Board of Education and the Riverhead Central Faculty Association, the school district teacher’s union. 

Riverhead Charter School Superintendent Raymond Ankrum announced in November that the charter school was purchasing roughly 72-acres, currently farmland, for the new school’s development. The land lies immediately east of the Riverhead Charter High School’s present location on Sound Avenue, located in the former Northville School, which the charter school is renting. Ankrum has said the new campus’ full buildout would include a high school, a middle school and athletic fields.

Opposition to the charter school’s plan came to a head during a Feb. 21 Town Board meeting, during which both sides argued for and against the charter school’s expansion plan. Building a campus there would require a special permit from the Town Board.

MORE COVERAGE: Charter school advocates and opponents clash over expansion plans at Town Board meeting

Many students attending the charter school spoke at the meeting, arguing that the expansion would allow them to have a gymnasium, a library and a cafeteria, and give them the opportunity for new extracurricular activities like sports. Opponents’s arguments ranged from the location of the development, to general opposition to the charter school and its expansion.

Opposition also took the form of paid advertising in local news media, a “No Charter on Sound” Facebook group and a billboard truck denouncing the Sound Avenue plan which has traveled around Riverhead and has also been parked directly across the road from the current Charter High School on Sound Avenue.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard said at a meeting with civic group leaders last week that the town was assisting the charter school in finding a different location for their new campus. 

“That is not going to happen at that location,“ Hubbard said. 

“They don’t want to build it there. They really don’t,” he said. “That opportunity came up to them because the landowner decided to put it up for sale. They know it’s not the ideal location. They would much rather be somewhere else.”

Hubbard said the town was looking at the industrial core of the Calverton Enterprise Park as a potential location, but said the price of the land was “way out of their budget.” He said the school wants around 40 acres of land for its campus, and that there are not many parcels within the town that size that aren’t preserved or already occupied.

“I would say – and I haven’t polled the board officially — but just in conversations at different times about this topic, I don’t believe there’s any support on the board for granting a special permit for a high school to be built in that location,” Hubbard said.

No special permit or site plan application had yet been filed by the school.