Town Board OKs permit for portable classrooms at Riverhead Charter School high school campus

The Town Board voted Tuesday to allow the Riverhead Charter School to expand its high school on Sound Avenue with three temporary portable trailers.

In a 3-2 split vote, board members granted the special permit necessary to add the trailers, which charter school administrators have said is a necessary stop-gap measure to increase its classroom and office space. The charter school is in contract to purchase land in Calverton, with plans to develop a middle school, high school and athletic fields for roughly 700 students. 

The charter school will not be permitted to expand the use of the property further, according to the special permit conditions. The special permit also requires the charter school to post a decommissioning bond “in an amount sufficient to facilitate the removal of the trailers from the site and remediate the site to previous existing conditions.” The charter school must also receive site plan approval from the Planning Board and periodically update the Town Board on the status of the development of another school.

Riverhead Charter School Superintendent Raymond Ankrum did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

Council members Joann Waski and Ken Rothwell — who have criticized the charter school’s plan in the past — split with other board members and voted against the permit.

“I will reiterate what I have said from day one,” Waski said. “I believe that the charter school entered into a lease agreement for the property on Sound Avenue knowing, fully acknowledging, what the maximum capacity was there. And I vote no.”

Rothwell said he supports the Riverhead Charter School and having alternative options for schools, “but I don’t believe that we should circumnavigate around the occupancy code enforced by the fire marshal’s office and start setting up trailers to allow additional students to enroll in that,” he said.

The Riverhead Charter School, founded in 2001 as a K-6 school, added grades 7 and 8 in 2013. The State Board of Regents granted an expansion to add secondary grades 9 and 10 in 2018, and grades 11 and 12 in 2022. Its current charter allows a maximum K-12 enrollment of 1,126 students in the 2024-2025 school year, increasing over the following two school years to a maximum of 1,244 students in 2026-2027.

Council Member Denise Merrifield, casting her vote for the special permit, said she believes refusing to grant the special permit could open the town up to litigation — and allow the charter school to “continue to build as much as they wanted.”

“I believe this is a good settlement in that it’s very restricted in the number of trailers that they can utilize — two for students and one for administration,” she said.

“I do believe, for children, that this is a very good school,” Merrifield said. “And I also feel that this particular applicant, while they did the wrong thing initially and did build the trailers illegally on the site, when required to remove them by the town, they did do that.” 

“Unlike other individuals that have made applications to this town, who have built things without permission and never removed them, I feel that this particular applicant was trying hard to follow the rules of this town,” Merrifield said. “And I do feel, for the very limited use that these trailers will be allowed and the very limited number that will be allowed, I feel that this is a good compromise. And therefore I vote yes.”

Supervisor Tim Hubbard and Council Member Bob Kern gave similar reasons, praising the special permit conditions required by the town. 

“At the end of the day, my biggest concern is not so much their trailers as it is kids being able to get the opportunity to get an education,” Hubbard said. “So I vote yes.”

The Riverhead Charter School is leasing the current high school, originally the Northville School, while it plans to build a new campus on the corner of Middle Country Road and Fresh Pond Avenue. The Calverton property on which the campus is being proposed is a large, 111-acre parcel, and is in the process of being subdivided. The Riverhead Charter School Board of Trustees authorized Ankrum to execute a sales contract to purchase the Calverton property, located at 4314 Middle Country Road, for $4.11 million at a meeting last July.