New private high school in the works in Schenectady

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A new community-based private high school plans to open its doors in the fall of 2010 at the Schenectady Light Opera Company’s new performing arts campus downtown.

Capital Lyceum will start with 30 to 35 ninth-grade students. The goal is to have about 150 high school students in grades nine through 12 by the start of the 2013-14 school year.

The new school, which takes its name from the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s school in Athens around 330 B.C., is seen as a companion to the private pre-kindergarten through grade eight Brown School. Current Brown Associate Head of School Marc Meyer is among the founding members of Capital Lyceum and will serve as executive director. Cathryn Blaber, who had served as technology director at the Brown School for eight years and most recently worked at Siena College, will serve as associate director.

Meyer said the school will be located initially on the top floor of the old Bethesda House facility at 423 Franklin St. Capital Lyceum will use the existing slate chalkboards in those rooms and add Smart Boards and laptops.

Bethesda House is moving to a new facility at 834-838 State St.

Capital Lyceum school officials will make their formal announcement at 11 a.m. Oct. 8 at 423 Franklin St.

Meyer said concerned parents and other educators in the area have been working on the idea for a couple of years.

“It’s really to create a school that is very community-based in downtown Schenectady. … It has a rigorous academic curriculum, but it’s not a school that will necessarily cater to gifted and talented kids, either.”

The school is partnering with the YMCA to use its new facility downtown at Center City for its physical education and with Schenectady County Community College to allow seniors to take college classes. Officials are still working on the details.

“We might be sharing some faculty. We might be offering classes jointly. This is a couple of years down the line, particularly in our science and math program,” Meyer said.

The school, which will have a yearly tuition of $16,000, will stress “inquiry-based learning,” with students learning subjects in seminars of about eight to 10 students.

“It really is a curriculum that poses questions rather than answers, and it allows students to develop those skills of inquiry,” Meyer said. “There is a set curriculum obviously, but it’s the task of the teacher to help the student generate those answers.”

Students will also be required to undertake a community service project to graduate.

Meyer said he believes the school will offer a unique academic program for the 21st century with an emphasis on internships and learning, community service and its location in an urban area.

“What we want to do is prepare them for success in high school, college and university and their adult lives by providing them with the necessary skills and habits of mind,” he said.

The school is not religiously affiliated: “That gives us freedom to develop curriculum that exceeds state standards. I think it’s a safe, nurturing environment.”

Meyer estimated that there would be a couple hundred thousand dollars in startup costs.

Meyer will teach history. Other founding staff will include physics teacher Ivar Giaever, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1973, and Viki L. Guido, a speech-language pathologist with 25 years of experience who will serve as director of the school’s Center for Learning and Academic Student Support.

When the school is fully enrolled in three years, there would be about 20 full-time and five part-time teachers, Meyer said.

Schenectady Light Opera Company officials note that the discussions are still preliminary because the organization has not yet taken ownership of the building, the former St. John the Baptist Church, from the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese.

“Nothing official is signed yet. We’re working on partnerships with the Lyceum,” said Robert Farquharson, chairman of SLOC’s relocation committee. “We’re in dialogue with the community college at a very early stage.”

For more information, contact Meyer at 612-8800 or visit www.capitallyceum.org.