Highland Park Charter to Break Ground on New Campus

Highland Park's will break ground on a new construction project on Thursday afternoon, an effort launched to help the seven-year-old campus keep up with growing enrollment.

According to Executive Director Ricardo Mireles, Academia Avance--which serves students from grades six through 12--will enroll about 500 students in the 2012 school year, up from the 100 students it enrolled upon opening in 2004.

Mireles said the school's campus as currently configured only has room for about 250 students, meaning that the school has had to bus students in lower grades to rented classroom facilities at the World Trade Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

"With the new facilities, we'll be able to bring all our students to Highland Park," Mireles said. "That is part of the original vision, to have students in the lower grades make connections with college-bound upperclassmen. We want them to see kids who are aspiring to go to college."

The construction of new classroom facilities will double Academia Avance's enrollment capacity, Mireles said.

A Highland Park resident himself, Mireles said he chose to invest in the school's current campus rather than moving to a new neighborhood because "Academia Avance was founded to serve Northeast Los Angeles, and Highland Park is the center of that."

Mireles added that he believed a renaissance was taking place in Highland Park, and that Academia Avance was arming students to take part in that cultural rebirth by preparing them for college.

"People are rediscovering Highland Park, due to the Gold Line station, its beautiful craftsman homes and proximity to Pasadena and Downtown," Mireles said. "It would be a shame if the young people who grew up in Highland Park weren't able to participate in that renaissance. To be able to really take part, they'll need to attend college."

The board of directors of Academia Avance Charter School at 115 N. Ave. 53 in Highland Park invites the community to attend the ground-breaking ceremony at 1 p.m. on Thursday Dec. 15. A holiday party will follow at 4 p.m.