Yonkers ‘bonds’ with charter school

Westchester”™s only public charter school will expand in Yonkers with financing assistance from the Yonkers Economic Development Corp.

The nonprofit agency”™s board recently agreed to issue tax-free education revenue bonds to finance an estimated $7.5-million expansion by the Charter School of Education Excellence (CSEE) at 260 Warburton Ave.  The bonds also will be used by the school to refinance approximately $3.75 million of debt on its original facility at lower interest rates.

The bonds will pay for off-site construction of a 29,000-square-foot modular building that will be installed at the rear of the Warburton Avenue school. The expansion will allow CSEE officials to add a middle-school curriculum for seventh and eighth grade students to the school”™s elementary-grades program in the 2010 school year.

The project is expected to create 25 permanent jobs and 30 construction jobs.

“The availability of high quality schools is a magnet that attracts families and the businesses that employ them to our city,” said Ellen Lynch, president and CEO of the Yonkers Economic Development Corp. “The Yonkers EDC knows that the future economic prosperity of our city rests with a well-educated work force. CSEE is doing its part to help make that possible.”

The first public charter school approved in Westchester County, CSEE opened in September 2005 and currently teaches 350 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The school in 2009 received a five-year charter renewal from the state Board of Regents.