Advanced Science and Technology Education Center (ASTEC)

[Geographer]

I went to space camp at ASTEC back in like 2001 haha.

[warreng88]

nm

[Pete]

October 29th, 2013 - Greg Horton
Lesson plans

Charter school purchases 23 acres of land to build $35 million campus

ASTEC Charter Schools will move to a new location for the fall term of 2016. Founded in 2000, Advanced Science & Technology Education Charter Schools is based on the ideas of its CEO, Freda Deskin, a career educator and education administrator. When Oklahoma passed charter school legislation, she decided to put her decades of experience into designing an ideal educational model.

[Spartan]

bad idea...

[HangryHippo]

bad idea...

Which part specifically?

[Plutonic Panda]

bad idea...

Why, this looks like a great facility?

[OKCisOK4me]

bad idea...

Yes, Spartan, why don't you give us an inkling to your reasoning...

[G.Walker]

A campus like this would have been great next to new MAPS 3 Central Park...

[Urbanized]

Would have been even better had it shared a campus with the Oklahoma School for Science and Math, which sits on a massive campus that it can probably never hope to fill, based on how little has been built there over the past 20 years. With both of those schools sharing the same air some amazing collaborations could have taken place.

[LuccaBrasi]

ASTEC's idea for having their own campus started 10+ years ago. In that time, they've looked at several sites from A to Z, and I believe at one point briefly considered the Journal Record building.

I think at the end of the day, it boiled down to land cost, coupled to some degree with the demographics of their student population.

They will soon be interviewing for a Program Manager Consultant to oversee the development of their campus.

[Pete]

Great project but it does seem like a big missed opportunity to have this apart of downtown somehow.

I wonder if the City ever got involved in trying to help them and at the same time fill a hole or two in one of the more ubran districts?

[HOT ROD]

I agree about them co-locating with OSSM but I also like the idea of seeding other parts of the inner city and letting it spur additional development/residential construction.

[DoctorTaco]

This location could do wonders for the Miller/Las Vegas neighborhood property values. Right now there are beautiful, well-maintained historic homes in there but a lot of people are unhappy with the local OKCPS elementary.

[shawnw]

The new location is roughly the same distance from those neighborhoods (but flipped) at the new location as it was at the old location, and similarly disconnected by major roads...

[DoctorTaco]

The new location is roughly the same distance from those neighborhoods (but flipped) at the new location as it was at the old location, and similarly disconnected by major roads...

Alright then.

[shawnw]

Just sayin... I hope the new location is positive for the school, its students, and its surrounding neighborhoods...

[warreng88]

Just sayin... I hope the new location is positive for the school, its students, and its surrounding neighborhoods...

Me too. We live about a mile and a half from this location and I hope will be a great influence to the surrounding neighborhood.

[Cocaine]

The location is okay it isn't as terrible as some people try and make it out to be. But I do think building this near the OSSM campus would have been a better idea. But maybe OSSM wouldn't have been okay with that.

[Plutonic Panda]

Is this still happening?

[Spartan]

The location is okay it isn't as terrible as some people try and make it out to be. But I do think building this near the OSSM campus would have been a better idea. But maybe OSSM wouldn't have been okay with that.

The location is better now than it will be. The point I have been making in this thread is that the city has a concerted overall plan to relocate ALL homeless services to this area. So why put a charter school here? Esp a school that should go in C2S (and build off of the downtown elementary) or somewhere with more neighborhood vitality.

[Plutonic Panda]

The location is better now than it will be. The point I have been making in this thread is that the city has a concerted overall plan to relocate ALL homeless services to this area. So why put a charter school here? Esp a school that should go in C2S (and build off of the downtown elementary) or somewhere with more neighborhood vitality.

This would be cool to urbanize it entirely and put it in the C2S area and create a mini-unversity there.

[Pete]

They bought the land last fall and set fall 2016 as the proposed opening date and are raising money, so all systems seem to be 'go'.

[Spartan]

It would be a huge boost to their fund development initiative if they did a land swap with OCURA and moved this elsewhere.

[Plutonic Panda]

anything new on this? I haven't been by but will make a quick stop on my way home today. Just curious if dirtwork has turned or if this has died.

[architect5311]

It is still alive and kicking...