Once the Freshman Academy is open at Danbury High School, the City will turn its attention to ACE, the Alternative Center for Excellence.  A study about how to best to utilize the Locust Avenue building was included in the DHS expansion project.  The building is short of room for about 25 students, among other issues. 

Mayor Mark Boughton says they've had some success with the temporary classrooms at Shelter Rock Elementary School so that kind of model may be used at ACE.  But he notes they still have to see if that kind of building will work on Locust Avenue.  He says they're inexpensive and could help get a full complement of 125 students into the program. 

The program for at-risk students has a class size of about 10 students each.  The students must meet DHS graduation requirements and receive a diploma from DHS upon graduation.

The building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.  The building opened in 1896 as an elementary school.  It was later used as a laboratory school for recent teacher training school graduates to work with students before they obtained teaching jobs.  It has housed the ACE program since 1977.