It felt like they were set up for failure.
In June of 2012, Academic Performance Excellence Academy (APEX) in the heart of East Hollywood was granted permission to convert from a district high school to a charter school. The catch, however, was that their charter school funding wouldn’t arrive until the following Spring.
“Everyone was telling us to wait a year,” says Cesar Lopez, principle at APEX. “But we had students who were counting on us. If it wasn’t for Charter School Capital, we wouldn’t be open.”
Funding from Charter School Capital allowed APEX to open in September of 2012 and make the necessary changes that would allow the school to continue with an important mission. “We take the kids that no one else wants,” shares Cesar.
APEX is the school gives everyone a chance; in fact, they give everyone a hundred. Students dealing with addiction, pregnancy and other issues that may make them unwelcome at other schools find a home at APEX. The school focuses on personal attention for each student as the way to help them succeed and get to college, and it doesn’t shy away from dealing with the hard issues.
APEX provides group therapy and counseling for students dealing with substance abuse and addiction issues. The idea is that off-site options do not work for everyone; so the school offers treatment in the one place they know the students will get it. “We try to be a one stop shop that centers around their education,” explains Lopez. And if a student gets into trouble, they won’t be sent away. “We want you here to learn everyday.”
It takes a special group of individuals to teach students with challenging needs, and having the right people is crucial to success. This was one of the major motivators behind the change from traditional public school to a public charter school.
As a district school, budget cuts from the state had made it harder to operate each year. Moreover, school officials were unable to hire the right teachers for the job. Mr. Lopez saw his staff changing each year, with most teachers transferring or having to be let go because they weren’t a good fit. This made the school’s difficult mandate even harder to meet. But now that APEX is a public charter school, the school has been able to build staff stability, strengthening school operations and student relations.
With reliable charter school funding from Charter School Capital, APEX is set to dramatically increase the number of students they enroll next year, from 250 now to approximately 400. Many students who could have otherwise been lost now have a path to success. By all accounts, APEX Academy has had more than enough reasons to fail, but with its students it is persevering and thriving.
Category: Charter School Success Stories
Consistency and community are critical to educational development. Those are the motivating principles behind Excel Prep, an in-demand charter school group in San Bernardino, California.
Chartered in 2009 with its first campus open in 2010, Excel Prep charter schools offer an excellent learning environment dedicated to helping K – 6 students, many from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Excel Prep stands out for offering a unique model in the charter world, a model that is based in a sense of community. Each campus is limited to 200 hundred students who wear uniforms to help them identify with one another. Teachers spend time with each student on campus daily and also speak with parents on a regular basis. Rules and practices are the same at each campus helping school officials maximize efficiencies as well as recognize patterns and identify issues early. The model has proven to be very successful, and the future is promising.
“I’m just truly excited about what’s about to take place,” says Antonette Sims, founder of Excel Prep. “I feel that from the beginning that there has been this sense of urgency, because I feel like there are a lot of kids falling through the cracks… I think that now we’re in this season that we have the right administration to pull off growth.“
Growth is exactly what is taking place. The school has added three campuses and several hundred students since 2010, evolving from a highly dedicated grassroots team to an organization that attracts top-quality educational professionals. But such rapid expansion has presented its own set of challenges.
“If it hadn’t been for Charter School Capital, we wouldn’t have been able to start this year…. We wouldn’t have had any start-up money… Keeping the doors open is thanks to Charter School Capital,” explains Sims. The charter school funding was a start and the partnership looks promising for the future as well. “l know that we have the system; I know we can duplicate it… So we’re definitely ready to expand.”
In addition to new campuses, Excel Prep is working to grow their program offerings, particularly for those kids who need “extra support.” Food, computer and uniform assistance are all starting to come together so that Excel Prep can enroll more disadvantaged students who require additional services.
“Our goal is to take kids from struggling areas and make sure that they have additional opportunities,” finished Sims. “We’re proud that we’re able to provide these kids with a zeal and a love for school.”
If the California Charter School Act of 1992 marks the charter school community’s most pivotal legislative victory, it can be argued that California Senate Bill 740 is a close second. However, its 2001 passage was only the beginning, as it paved the way for a triumphant rescue years later.
SB 740 contains two primary provisions. The first provision regulates the actions of non-classroom-based charters. The other creates a facilities grant program for charters serving low-income students—the only program of its kind in California. Though $7.7M was allocated for the grant program, that funding fell victim to budget cuts year after year, requiring extensive lobbying efforts to reinstate it. Branche Jones, Charter School Capital’s California legislative consultant, was instrumental in those efforts from the beginning. “There was always supposed to be $7.7M, but you would end up with $0. We’d have to get Governor Schwarzenegger to put it back in the May budget revision in order to get the money.”
By 2007, the State Speaker’s Office took matters a step further, placing that money in a standalone trailer bill that was ultimately left at the desk. With those funds now off-limits, California charter school stakeholders and supporters came together to take action. From lobbyists in Sacramento to parents from the Camino Nuevo charter school in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles—the State Speaker’s home district—pressure was brought from all corners of the California charter school community. Eventually, it worked.
Not only did negotiations ensure that the funding was reinstated, but they also resulted in a dramatic increase—from $7.7M to $18M.
And the momentum continued. The following year, in 2008, lobbyists were successful in convincing legislative leadership to improve the way bonding authority was calculated. As a result, existing year-round grant program funding was redirected toward SB 740 as well, adding $20M to the program the first year and $40M thereafter. Today, the program’s funding has climbed to $118M in six years. Better yet, it’s protected as a standalone categorical program.
Looking back, Jones attributes this unprecedented victory to the team effort in place. “For me, the biggest successes aren’t when one or two people are doing it. It’s when the collective body is making it happen. This was one of those unique situations where everybody came together,” he said.
Among the factors that determine a student’s likelihood to attend college, middle school figures prominently. Performance during grades six through nine tends to set in motion a pattern that dictates whether or not a young person will pursue higher education.
In San Bernardino, there is yet another hurdle: the area holds the highest dropout and lowest college attendance rates in the country. New Vision Middle School’s founders recognized the need for a solution and established their charter school in 2009.
As a charter school, New Vision affords students a luxury that its district counterparts often cannot – individualized attention. Principal Javier Hernandez believes making education personal is the key to connecting with students. “The typical middle schools here are easily over 1,000 students, whereas we have 300. Because we are a smaller school, we’re able to know the students. They know us. And we’re able to build a relationship with the students as well as their parents.”
And that relationship ultimately lays the groundwork for a shift in attitude. New Vision students are empowered to take a vested interest in their education, often for the first time, which inspires them to see college as a practical, attainable goal.
For Principal Hernandez, that simple realization lies at the heart of New Vision’s mission. “That’s the thing that we see here with our students—they suddenly see that education is important and want to try and do well in their classes so that they can go to college,” he said.
Considering New Vision’s contribution to the community, it’s hard to imagine life without the school. But, Alex Lucero, its executive director remembers the challenges they faced when opening their doors four years ago.
“We decided to open up in the midst of a California crisis where there were state budget cuts in education and funding deferrals in place. We didn’t know when our state funding was going to hit our bank account, “ he said.
Fortunately, New Vision reached out to Charter School Capital, giving us the opportunity to provide both monetary and informational support—the latter proving a welcome resource for Lucero and his team.
“I’m a double business major, have a master’s in education and have been working in charter schools for several years. But looking at the financial materials didn’t explain anything to me,” said Lucero. “Charter School Capital was able to assist with that.”
At CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts in Van Nuys, California, creativity takes center stage. While financial strain has led many schools to reduce the arts, CHAMPS principal Dr. John Biroc has taken the opposite approach, boldly infusing artistic expression into academics at every turn.
From performance to robotics, the arts play a major role in students’ day-to-day learning at CHAMPS as they divide their time between the classroom and the studio. For Dr. Biroc, it’s a curriculum that can transform young lives.
“When I see the kids and what they do—how their passion comes to life around the arts—I cannot tell you fulfilling that is,” he said.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of charter schools in California, we’ll be counting down the days to the California Charter Schools Conference (March 11-14) by showcasing charter school success stories from around the Golden State.
Holly Drive Leadership Academy is a K-8 school in San Diego. Founded in 1999 and incorporated into the San Diego Unified School District three years later, the school operated under district management for nearly a decade until opting to become a charter school in July 2011.
Becoming a charter allowed Holly Drive to provide educational options to their students, but it also meant overseeing the school’s operations for the first time.
The school’s leadership was well trained and ready to manage the educational components of running a charter school. However, the financial management was less familiar.
“Everything we’d ever done was through the district, including the payroll,” said Alysia Smith, principal at Holly Drive Leadership Academy. “I was used to that.”
Managing finances with limited experience is challenging under normal circumstances. Doing so in the wake of a severe cash flow shortage only intensifies the strain. Like, all charter schools in California, Holly Drive was subject to the state’s payment deferrals, which made for a harsh reality check early on.
“I had heard about the deferrals, but didn’t know they were so few and far between until we were on our own,” said Smith. “I didn’t know the state was so behind in paying the schools such large amounts of money.”
That’s when Holly Drive came to the Charter School Capital team. We were fortunate enough to partner with them to provide working capital funds when they needed them most. This allowed Holly Drive the freedom to focus on educating students. The key was eliminating the strain the payment deferrals had on the school’s operational stability. Our team devised an initial funding plan that provided necessary funds, as scheduled, so Holly Drive could maintain all operational needs.
Next, we worked closely with Alysia and her team to ensure Holly Drive’s long-term financial stability, offering counsel on the impacts of state budget changes, navigating bylaws, and budgeting for growth among other topics. Our efforts ultimately produced a budget that supports their immediate needs while safeguarding their ability to grow in the future.
This school year, Holly Drive is financially and operationally stable, allowing the school leadership to focus on educating nearly 140 students currently enrolled at the school.
“I’m here for my kids,” Smith said.