Riverhead Charter School unveils plan to build middle school, high school and athletic fields in Calverton

The Riverhead Charter School unveiled its plan this morning to build a middle school, high school and athletic fields on the corner of Middle Country Road and Fresh Pond Avenue in Calverton. 

The campus will hold roughly 700 students and 55 faculty/staff, according to charter school officials. Charter school administrators have said the school’s student population is quickly running out of space; the school added more grades and is enrolling more students after it was granted an expanded charter in 2022.

Riverhead Charter School Superintendent Raymond Ankrum, charter school Chief Finance and Operations Officer Nicola Graham and engineer Thomas Wolpert of Young Associates presented the plan to Riverhead town planners at a presubmission conference Tuesday morning. The plans discussed were not final; the charter school has yet to file applications with the town. 

The middle school building would total 15,000 square feet, while the high school would total 44,600 square feet, according to the plan. Both buildings would be two stories high. Full-size soccer and football fields would be built on the north side of the property, with a track circling the football field, according to the plan. 

Entrances for vehicles would be made on both Middle Country Road and Fresh Pond Avenue, the plan shows. Town planners said the entrance on Middle Country Road would have to be built to align with the traffic light being installed east of Fresh Pond Avenue; the New York State Department of Transportation required the light as a condition of the development of the HK Ventures industrial park planned for the south side of the two-lane state highway.

The property on which the campus is being proposed is a large, 111-acre parcel, and must be subdivided for the project. The frontage on Middle Country Road on which the campus would be built is zoned Rural Corridor, which allows the development of private schools as-of-right. The rest of the property is in the Agricultural Protection zoning district, which only allows private schools by a special permit, which gives the Town Board a greater amount of discretion as to whether or not a school could go forward. 

Riverhead Senior Planner Greg Bergman said the project will require a full environmental assessment and traffic analysis. The corner of Fresh Pond Avenue and Middle Country Road, which is State Route 25, does not have a traffic signal. Several residents of the area, as well as Ankrum, objected to the location of the HK Ventures project due to concerns that the development might exacerbate already dangerous traffic conditions at the intersection. 

Charter school administrators have said current facilities do not have enough space for its expanding student population. High school classes occur in a renovated Northville schoolhouse on Sound Avenue, and middle school students share space with younger students at the main charter school campus, which is located on Middle Country Road east of Edwards Avenue. 

Previous attempts by the charter school to find land for a new campus faced heavy public opposition, particularly by teachers and other officials of the Riverhead Central School District. 

Riverhead Charter School Superintendent Raymond Ankrum announced in November last year that the charter school was purchasing roughly 72 acres of farmland next to the Northville schoolhouse to build a new school campus. The project would have required a special permit, since the land was in the Agricultural Protection zoning district. After months of heavy backlash from residents, the charter school abandoned the plan.

Then it considered purchasing and developing the schools on industrial land adjacent to its main campus on Middle Country Road. The Town Board considered changing the zoning to allow private schools on industrial land, but faced more heavy opposition. The Town Board pulled the recommendation from its land-use plan, leaving the charter school with what Ankrum said were few options. 

The Riverhead Charter School Board of Trustees authorized Ankrum to execute a sales contract to purchase property at 4314 Middle Country Road in Calverton for $4.11 million at a meeting in July.

In the meantime, the charter school is looking to site three temporary trailers in the backyard of the schoolhouse in Northville to accommodate more students and for administrative office space. The Town Board decision whether or not to approve the special permit to install the trailers is pending.

Read more coverage of the Riverhead Charter School here.