Vision: Common Ground High School will graduate students with the knowledge, skills, and understanding to live healthy, powerful, and productive lives.
Common Ground High School takes the urban environment as its organizing focus. Common Ground uses three sites as laboratories for learning: the urban farm that is the school’s campus, the natural environment of the adjacent West Rock Ridge State Park, and the urban setting of New Haven, Connecticut. Close study of these places develops understanding of local and global issues. Through this study and core academic work, students experience a rigorous high school curriculum that prepares them for competitive colleges, meaningful careers, and purposeful lives.

Description:
Common Ground High School, a program of the New Haven Ecology Project, is the first Public Charter School with a focus on the urban environment. Common Ground High School (CGHS) is located on the New Haven Ecology Project's 20-acre urban, organic farm at the base of West Rock Ridge in New Haven, CT.

Common Ground offers a comprehensive high school curriculum to prepare students for college and future careers. Through hands-on inquiry, research and investigation, students will develop...

• Academic Accomplishment
• Ecological Literacy
• Commitment to Community
• Strong Character
  
  



History:
In the late 1980’s a group of educators, parents, and environmentalists began to meet to design a new organization to provide environmental education in New Haven, Connecticut. The founders envisioned programs that would use local parks to teach key ecological concepts and to connect youth to natural resources in their own communities. The founders believed in the power of place-based education and in the importance of food as a central environmental and social issue. The group incorporated as The New Haven Ecology Project in 1990. The long-term goal was to promote healthy lifestyles and model environmental practices at a working demonstration farm, school, and environmental center in New Haven.

In 1994, a full-time staff of one ran pilot programs in teacher training, service learning at several middle schools, and ecology summer camp at the West Rock Nature Center. The Ecology Project negotiated with the New Haven Department of Parks, Recreation, and Trees to lease 20 acres of abandoned park land at 358 Springside Avenue, at the base of West Rock Ridge State Park. With national interest in charter schools growing, Connecticut passed enabling legislation and approved the first ten charters in 1997, requiring the schools to open by September. The Ecology Project’s proposal for Common Ground High School was approved in this cycle, and the school opened in late August. In its first ten years, Common Ground High School has grown into a rigorous high school, as well as a model of place-based environmental learning.

As the high school program grew, so did community environmental programs -- building the current symbiotic relationships among an innovative college-preparatory public high school, a demonstration farm, and a non-profit environmental education center. To emphasize the environmental education and advocacy focus of the organization, the board is now planning the next phase of development of the organization as the region’s center for environmental learning and leadership.



Contact person: Amy Champagne, After School Programs Coordinator, (phone), (email)


Office fax number: (203) 389-7458

Address:


358 Springside Avenue New Haven, CT 06515 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.commongroundct.org

Directions:

Directions to Common Ground (358 Springside Ave.) from Whalley Avenue: In the center of Westville Turn onto Blake St. (this is a right turn coming from downtown New Haven, a left coming from Amity) At the second light, take a left onto Springside Ave. Continue approx. 1/2 mile. Our driveway is on the left. (The first driveway after area becomes wooded.) Out of Town Directions to Common Ground (358 Springside Ave.) From the North: I-91 to New Haven exit 1. This is an access road. Follow to end and continue on Frontage Rd. until you reach the end at the light at Ella T. Grasso Blvd. At the light, take a right and stay on that road until the fourth light which is Whalley Ave. (Dunkin Donuts on the right). Take a left on Whalley Ave. and continue on Whalley for a few lights until there is a cemetery on your right and a gas station at a traffic light (Fitch Street). At the second light after Fitch street, take a right on Blake Street. At the second light, turn left onto Springside Ave. Drive for about ½ mile and Common Ground High School will be on your left. Park in lot at bottom of hill with other cars. From the East: Take I-95 to New Haven and get off at the Downtown New Haven Exit. This is an access road. Follow above out of town directions. From the West: Take I-95 to New Haven and get off at the Downtown New Haven Exit. It is a left hand exit. This is an access road. Follow above out of town directions. Phone: (203) 389-4333 or 389-0823 Common Ground is also on the CT Transit B-1 bus line, after SCSU and immediately before CT Jobs Corps.   Nearest Bus Stop: B-Brookside, 1 minute walk

Last updated on May 1, 2009