Bayard Rustin Educational Campus houses six small schools that share a cafeteria, a library and sports teams. Each school has a different philosophy and targets a different kind of student, but all have somewhat off-beat approaches to education.

The building is a bit run down but it has some nice touches, like stained glass windows in the entrance. It does not have metal detectors. Many students are allowed outside the building for lunch.

Quest to Learn, opened in 2009 with a 6^th grade, plans to add a grade each year until it serves children in grades 6 to 12. Nicknamed a school for “digital kids,” Quest to Learn incorporates into its academic lessons the same principles that make video games fun.

Manhattan Business Academy, also founded in 2009, exposes students to marketing, advertising and accounting and gives them the chance to create mock businesses in the Virtual Enterprise program. Students get a chance to sail on the Hudson River as part of partnership with a non-profit organization.

At Hudson High School of Learning Technologies, computers—not textbooks are at the core of instruction. Led by Nancy Amling, a former assistant principal at Queens High School of Teaching, the school opened in 2010 with a 9^th grade.

Humanities Preparatory Academy and the James Baldwin School are alternative schools, modeled after Urban Academy, designed to offer a refuge and personal attention to students—including some high-achieving ones--who have been unsuccessful at other schools.

Landmark High School, which had been housed in an office building in Midtown, moved into the Bayard Rustin building in 2009. Landmark is a progressive school that doesn’t require students to take most Regents exams.

Formerly a zoned, neighborhood high school, the former Bayard Rustin High School was closed because of poor performance. Its last students graduated in 2012. (Clara Hemphill, April 2012)