Desert Star Academy Realizes Incredible Growth and a New Facility!
Desert Star Academy is a pre-K through 8th grade charter school in Fort Mohave, Arizona and run by its dedicated founder and director, Margie Montgomery. Their mission is to create academic scholars, citizens, and productive community leaders. Their experienced, passionate teaching staff focuses on providing rigor in the classroom and creating a culture of building confidence in their scholars as the foundation for learning and growth. Their inspiring culture, curriculum, and proven academic success are just a few reasons for their astronomical year-over-year growth from 62 students in 2014 to over 450 scholars expected this year.
CHALLENGES
- In the beginning, they had very little capital to get started, purchase curriculum, furnishings, and cover operational expenses.
- With true-ups in November and expected increases in students each year, they were continually facing significant budget gaps
- Their incredible rise in enrollment after their first year resulted in Desert Star Academy quickly outgrowing their space.
- Desert Star Academy not only needed a new middle school facility, but the capital to support the education of their scholars.
SOLUTION
- To get the school up and running, Charter School Capital helped provide the capital needed to cover expenses.
- To bridge funding gaps, Charter School Capital purchases payments due to Desert Star Academy and provides the funds they need in advance of state payment distribution dates
- To address their facilities needs, Charter School Capital bought land in 2016, completed construction on a new middle school in 2017, and provided a long-term lease to the school as well as capital for curriculum, technology, and furnishings.
“Charter School Capital is highly vested in our school’s success and the support is great! They helped me become a better business manager and I can honestly say that we wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of Charter School Capital.” -Margie Montgomery, Founder & Director, Desert Star Academy
THE RESULT
The funding and facilities support provided by Charter School Capital helped facilitate Desert Star Academy’s continued impressive growth. It enabled them to increase enrollment; hire new staff; purchase materials, technology, and curriculum; acquire new furniture; cover basic operational costs; and importantly, add a needed middle school campus. Executive Director, Margie Montgomery, the life force behind Desert Star’s achievements, is looking toward their future. In addition to her dream of building a gym and several additional classrooms for her scholars, she is working closely with Charter School Capital on a plan for the school to become financially independent while continuing their growth trajectory.
You can download the PDF of this School Spotlight here.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. 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 $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!