for the upcoming academic year. Most of
the 100-plus seats are for the new annual
Kindergarten scholars, but typically a
few seats open up for the other grades as
well. This spring, over 1400 applications
were received from families seeking
placement with numbers of applications
reaching as high as 1900 in years past.
Challenge Charter School is deeply
imbedded into the Far Rockaway community.
Now serving scholars and their
families from three locations, the school
regularly goes beyond the classroom to
meet the needs of families. At the Middle
School’s Academic Center, parent
workshops are held throughout the year
on topics such as financial planning,
health, and high school and college planning.
At the K-5 site on Hartman, scholars
have been harvesting vegetables from
the school’s new garden oasis opened
this spring. The goal is for scholars to
take home some of the produce and learn
how to grow their own food at home
with their families.
In 2017, Project Character was born
at the K-5 which features school mascot
Champ the Cheetah teaching scholars
traits like Citizenship, Kindness, and
Tolerance. The classroom resources and
special assemblies on each topic extend
to families through downloadable posters,
worksheets, and videos made available
on the school website.
Challenge Charter School is always
looking for ways to enhance the lives
of the scholars and by extension, their
families. The last five years, the school
has offered Challenge Charter Summer
Day Camp, a 4-week camp with
breakfast, lunch, educational guests, and
field trips at a much lower than average
cost to families. Each year, youth from
the Rockaway Development & Revitalization
Corporation’s (RDRC) Summer
Youth Employment Program work
alongside Challenge teachers and staff
at the camp.
The Camp partnership with RDRC
is just one of the examples of how
Challenge partners with community and
city-wide organizations. Various partnerships
over the years include JFK
Redevelopment Community Council,
New York Cares, New York Food Bank,
and Alvin Ailey Arts in Education.
The original vision of Challenge
Charter School remains strong as changes
take place across housing, business,
and public spaces in Far Rockaway. In
the fall of 2018, local and city officials
kicked off a historic $139 million dollar
project to revitalize approximately
25 blocks in downtown. The school’s
Enrichment Center, which houses the
Middle School’s gym and cafeteria as
well as many offices for support and
leadership staff, sits near the intersection
of Mott and Central Avenue.
From his office window there, Mullings
has a good vantage point of the heart
of the city. Challenge Middle School
opened in the fall of 2016, a beginning
to the transformation of the blocks on
Central between Mott and Nameoke.
With additional space needed in fall
CHALLENGE PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL Special Advertising Section
2018, Challenge occupied the building at
1279 Redfern, which now serves as the
Academic Center for grades 6-8.
The school is currently renovating
two buildings at 1520 Central Avenue
to add over 70,000 square foot of new
educational space. The front building
will house the new CTE high school
opening in August 2020. The second
building will add 19 new classrooms for
the Middle School. A new high school
gym is under construction between the
two buildings.
Challenge Charter is gratefully well
represented in Far Rockaway across the
current three school sites on Hartman,
Redfern, and Central, and when all the
renovations are complete, Challenge
Middle and Challenge High will be
right at the epicenter of the city’s hardfought
and-won renaissance.
The Future
In unexpected ways, Hurricane
Sandy brought much needed attention
to the seemingly forgotten citizens of
Far Rockaway. When rebuilding started,
the area began seeing interest from
investors. As a local community leader
and pastor of Far Rockaway Community
Church for 20-plus years, Dr. Mullings
is a community investor of a different
and much-needed sort as city-wide
renewal is taking place. He understands
the delicate balance between new business
interests and the on-going need to
better the lives of current citizens without
displacement.
To that end, the steel beams of a new
affordable housing facility are rising
into the sky at 1414 Central Avenue, the
former location of Far Rockaway Community
Church. When completed, the
70-million dollar facility will have 170
units of studio, one-, two- and threebedroom
apartments. On street level,
the Community Church will continue
its twenty-eight plus years of ministry
and community service in a new
11,500 square foot facility facing Central
Avenue.
Additionally, the construction project
includes 10,000 square foot of community
space that will house multiple
educational and small business related
facilities. Current plans include a stateof
the-art child-care center, The Rock
Kitchen, a culinary arts training facility
offering training for troubled youth, veterans
and food entrepreneurs, and The
Rock Studio, co-working space assisting
early-stage startups in technology, creative
and interactive media industries and
other innovative small businesses. The
Rock Studio will operate through a peerbased
mentoring system with additional
support from business mentors, community,
city and state organizations, along
with seasoned entrepreneurs.
In May, the school received its second
5-year renewal and an expansion granted
by its authorizer the NY Department
of Education, giving evidence that the
community is ripe for the next phase
in Challenge Charter School’s plan. As
the school nears its 10-year Anniversary
in 2020, Dr. Mullings and his staff are
gearing up for the opening of Challenge
Charter High School for the 2020-21
academic year.
Beginning with 9th and 10th Grade,
the new CTE high school will ultimately
go two years past typical graduation
in order to provide career readiness
through a college degree program. Graduates
will earn a New York State Regents
diploma and an Associate Degree in one
of four fields: Allied Health, Culinary
Arts, Hospitality, or Aviation.
Challenge CTE High School will
play a major role in improving academic
achievement and economic development
in Far Rockaway by breaking
new ground as a CTE public charter
school. Challenge CTE High School
will work closely with community colleges
to develop its high school and col-