Creo College Preparatory Charter School

Opened in 2019, Creo College Preparatory Charter offers a longer than usual school day and year, small group instruction and daily small-group advisory sessions with an adult, during which teens discuss a range of issues such as representation of minorities in the media, friendships and gender concerns. Every student is required to take computer science as a core subject every year, according to the school website.

Videos on Youtube, created during the 2020 pandemic, show a young, ethnically diverse staff using humor, charts, film and video clips to instruct students, as they cover topics, such as the use of comic relief in the serious historical novel Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. Lessons are nicely paced and teachers set clear tasks for follow-up assignments. 

Located in the Cardinal Hayes High School building near Grand Concourse, the school day runs from 7:30 am to 4:45 pm, with enrichment lasting until 5:30 pm. After school clubs include coding, film, music and drawing, the website shows. On Fridays the school day ends at 1 pm. Each year, students receive 75 additional days of instruction compared to NYC district schools. 

ADMISSIONS: By lottery. District 7 preference. (Lydie Raschka, web reports, June 2020)