DREAM Highbridge
Charter School

NYCR-CDE provided $15 million in New Markets Tax Credit financing for the construction of a new public charter school in the South Bronx.

The capital helped fund the construction of the 85,000 square foot DREAM Highbridge Charter School. The new school has the capacity to serve approximately 1,145 students in Pre-K to 8^th grade and is run by DREAM, one of the city’s leading charter school networks. Currently, the school serves grades K-2 and 6 and will grow by one grade per year.  The school features a full-size gymnasium and cafeteria, rooftop play space, technology lounge, and onsite occupational therapy and family coordinators. The school is part of a large affordable housing development for Bronx families.

DREAM charter school network traces its beginnings to 1991, when a group of volunteers transformed an abandoned lot in East Harlem into two baseball diamonds for the neighborhood youth. That effort grew into Harlem RBI, an award-winning sports-based youth development organization that offered afterschool and summer programming, becoming a model and symbol of the power of play for young people everywhere. DREAM today serves more than 2,000 children across East Harlem and the South Bronx through its network of six charter schools. At DREAM, 99% of students are Black and/or Hispanic; 88% qualify for free or reduced lunch; and 29% have identified special needs. Nearly half of DREAM alumni are first-generation college students and DREAM Charter High School has a 99% acceptance rate into college. 

“I do think place matters; where you go to school every day. The physical manifestation of what you want for your life is important and says something to you about what is possible and what you deserve … This school is a physical manifestation of our student’s hopes and dreams”

– Eve Colavito, Co-Chief Executive Officer, DREAM Charter School