By Eileen Buckley
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-984895.mp3
Buffalo, NY – A new school year kicks off this week across the Buffalo Niagara Region. The Health Sciences Charter School opens at a new site in downtown Buffalo Tuesday. WBFO'S Eileen Buckley says the school is now located in a 19th century building.
The Health Sciences Charter School is ready to embark on its second year. Students attended the first year at a building in Tonawanda. But now the more than 200-freshmen and sophomores begin their new school year in Buffalo.
Dr. Hank Stopinski is principal of the Health Sciences charter school. A year ago school leaders searched for a new location and discovered a five-story E.B. Green designed brick building on Ellicott Street.
ECC moved out of the building about 30-years ago into its current downtown city campus location. But the building dates back to 1899 and was once home to St. Vincent's Female Orphanage Asylum.
The new school is located near the Buffalo-Medical corridor that makes it an ideal location, allowing students to work on their studies that include work-place internships and partnering with the science and medical fields advancing students teaching beyond a typical high school curriculum.
The school spent $5 million to recreate the 19th century structure into a modern school.