A charter school in the Bronx recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary.
On Thursday, April 21, the International Leadership Charter High School held a gala to celebrate its anniversary in the Garden Terrace Room at the New York Botanical Garden.
The celebration was attended by school principal Dr. Elaine Ruiz Lopez, John Paul Gonzalez, chairman of ILCHS’s Board of Trustees, along with school faculty and other board of trustees members.
The celebratory event also honored two important names – Dr. Betty Rosa and Marlene Cintron, both of whom have been big supporters of the school.
For over the past six years, Cintron has been the president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that has been responsible for bringing down the borough’s unemployment rate by more than five percent during her tenure.
Rosa, who was re-elected for a second five-year term as a Regent for the 12th Judicial District (in the Bronx) in 2013, was recently named Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents in March.
“As the first community grown charter high school to be established in the Bronx, I am very proud of what we have been able to accomplish and achieve in ten years,” said Ruiz-Lopez, who founded ILCHS in 2006.
“We are very proud that our mission and vision for a world class education for black and latino students in the Bronx is succeeding and that we are making a big difference in our community.”
Sponsors and donors for the gala includes Amber Charter School, the Board of Trustees, Capital One, the Cartridge Center, Con Edison, Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith and Davis, Kevin’s Painting, Perkins Eastman, Professional Cleaning Services, Korea Taekwondo and the Wu Famly.
In January, ILCHS held the grand opening of its new academic facility at 3030 Riverdale Avenue on the corner of West 231st Street, after spending the first nine and a half years of its existence at 2900 Exterior Street.
The $17.5 million, 28,000 square-foot facility that topped out to three floors, accommodates 350 students and includes two science labs, Wi-Fi technology, a full size cafeteria, a library/media center and an adolescent school-based health clinic.
The U.S. News & World Report previously named ILCHS on its ‘Best High Schools’ lists for 2013, 2014 and 2015, a prestigious national recognition which demonstrates that ILCHS is among the top 25 percent of all public schools in the United States.
ILCHS has also been placed in the top one percent of all high schools in NYC and was also the recipient of the Bronze Award from U.S. News & World Report in 2013 and 2014 after being labelled among the best high school’s in the country.
