Tonight at 7pm, there’s a meeting at the Allendale Theatre (203 Allen Street) concerning a possible reuse for Buffalo Public School #36, which sits on the northwest corner of Days Park in Allentown and fronts on Hudson Street as well. At the meeting, the Elmwood Village Charter School (124 Elmwood Avenue) will make a pitch for reusing the school, which is slated for closure—as a school.

Three years ago Days Park was on a list of schools the BPS wanted to close. (We wrote about it back in 2006.) It didn’t close back then, in large part because the Herman Badillo school was not yet ready to absorb its students, but it will close in June. Knowing that, neighbors have been casting around for someone interested in developing the site or reusing the existing building—anything to prevent the blight that an abandoned hulk of a building would inflict on the surrounding blocks.

Plans for some sort of residential development went nowhere. But now the Elmwood Village Charter School has come forward with an idea. The state board that regulates charter schools has given permission for the Elmwood Village Charter School to expand. The school can’t expand in the building its using now, and so is interested in acquiring School #36.

It seems a perfect match: BPS wants to close a school, and another, successful school would like to move in. But to move along the process—whereby the BPS decommissions the school and turns it over to the city’s real estate department, which can negotiate a deal with the charter school—the BPS wants to see some sign of community support.

Tonight’s meeting is the time to learn about the project and decide whether you’re in.