Charter School Capital Funding Enables Skyline Education to Grow and Provide the Resources Needed for Their Students
Read this school spotlight to learn how Charter School Capital funding helped Skyline Education when they needed it most.
Providing a quality education to at-risk students often requires multiple resources. One-on-one instruction with teachers, access to good computers and customized lesson plans for students with special needs are just a few of the tools necessary to help children from underserved communities reach their potential. That is the formula behind the success of Skyline Education, a charter network in Arizona.
The multi-disciplined approach to education that Skyline’s six campuses provide “comes at a fairly high up-front expense,” says KJ Weihing, vice president of finance at Skyline Education. “We wanted to make purchases but didn’t have the up-front funding. That’s why we called Charter School Capital; they helped us get that short-term funding.”
Skyline opened its first campus in 2000, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the charter began to experience rapid growth. That year, the charter added two new campuses to its network, another in 2010 and two more in 2012. The network now serves more than 1,000 students in socially and economically diverse communities, including the Gila River Indian Community.
Such dramatic growth these past few years created a real need to access working capital, explains Weihing. The charter network knew that it would be receiving its funding, but given the uncertain payment schedule from the State of Arizona, they didn’t know when. School administrators knew that they needed some form of help to even out their budget throughout the year but were very wary of outside funders until they met Charter School Capital.
“We wanted to make purchases but didn’t have the up-front funding. That’s why we called Charter School Capital; they helped us get that short-term funding.”
~KJ Weighing, Vice President of Finance, Skyline Education
“I was impressed with the fee structure,” says Weihing. “A lot of times there are organizations that will lend for 20% interest because they know you can’t get funds anywhere else. Charter School Capital’s fee structure was not outrageous.”
But the relationship Skyline has developed with Charter School Capital is rooted in much more than just financial terms. Weihing would recommend to any charter school needing funds that they just “start the process,” stating that the two organizations have formed a real partnership dedicated to the success of Skyline Education.
“Last year, we wanted to make new computer purchases for one of our schools, but we didn’t have the current funding on hand to make that happen. So we used Charter School Capital to provide us with some short-term, immediate funds in order to get those computers into the classroom sooner than we would have been able to if we were waiting on funding,” concludes Weihing. The whole process has been “extremely seamless, quick and easy; I’m glad I did it.”
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us!
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