Mission & History

Mission

Excellence Community Schools prepares young people in New York City and Stamford to compete for admission to and succeed in top public, private and parochial high schools by cultivating their intellectual, artistic, social, emotional, and ethical development. Excellence Community Schools accomplishes this by offering a challenging and rigorous academic curriculum, which at the earliest of grades has an eye toward college preparation. Excellence Community Schools achieves this in a supportive and caring environment that maintains high expectations for all students.

How Our Success Started

Excellence Community Schools was founded in July 2016 and is the non-profit charter management organization supporting Bronx Excellence and Stamford Excellence schools. In September 2016, Excellence Community Schools was one of only 15 grantees nationwide to receive awards from the U.S. Department of Education for the Replication and Expansion of High-Quality Public Charter Schools. The Bronx Charter School for Excellence, or Bronx Excellence, began as a K-5 charter public elementary school for children in New York’s Morris Park/Parkchester section of the Bronx in 2004.

In 2007, Dr. Charlene Reid became the Principal of Bronx Excellence, in Parkchester. By 2009, the State University of New York (SUNY) took note of the school's positive trajectory, stating in their Initial Renewal Recommendation Report that “the school had created a warm, respectful environment where learning is valued and the school had established high expectations for student achievement.” In that same year, Bronx Excellence became one of only three SUNY authorized charter schools to receive a full-term, five-year renewal. By 2012, Bronx Excellence was identified as the highest performing K-8 public charter school in the State of New York and was recognized as a U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon School.