By doing a story on the Immaculate Conception School for my tryout assignment, I learned about one of Ithaca’s many options for childhood education. The school’s rich history and family environment really embodied terms like ‘community’ and ‘family’ that are haphazardly thrown around.
I originally wanted to do a story on Ithaca’s New Roots Charter School, located in the Clinton House. There was a lot of question about whether the town needed the school to begin with, but looking through the Ithaca Journal’s archives I think it may have been a response to home schooled students being excluded from participation in public school extra curricular activities.
There are currently 225 students in grades 9 and 10 at the school according to statistics from newyorkcharters.org. The school will be expanding the second story in order to include grades 11 and 12.
It would be interesting to see how many high school students who attended elementary school at Immaculate Conception or were home schooled at one point now attend New Roots Charter school.
Kevin McCall's News 2 Blog 