Trying to help students with disabilities learn is a tough job. To be successful, school administrators need to focus on educating students, not on charter school funding or operational issues. As a start-up charter school, Learning Path Academy, located in West Palm Beach, FL, found themselves in need of a charter school working capital solution, and turned to Charter School Capital.
Learning Path Academy focuses on students with learning and language disabilities who may struggle in the traditional public school system. After securing school facilities, school administrators were ecstatic to open their doors last August. They believed and planned on state funding, but quickly learned that funding was based on making expenditures that would be reimbursed.
“As we started operating, the implementation grant we received from the state of Florida informed us that we had to spend the money, and then we would be reimbursed,” explains Isis Rosso, co-founder and director of operations at Learning Path. “Our first check from the district was tiny. It was enough to pay the rent and clean the building, but we were basically working for free for three months. That’s when we called Charter School Capital.”
Charter School Capital was able to furnish the working capital Learning Path needed, enabling them to continue offering the special attention and customized learning plans to their students in need.
The school’s special system, which focuses on a low student-to-teacher ratio and staff experienced with special needs education, also asks for heavy involvement from parents and reports on student progress regularly. Because of this, families have been tremendously pleased with Learning Path and enrollment is on the rise. The fairly new school currently serves 118 students in grades Pre-K through 4th, and is already making plans to add 5th grade and grow their student enrollment to 192, the maximum allowed currently.
To address this anticipated growth, school administrators understand that sufficient and flexible capital must be available for them to accomplish their goals.
“Knowing that my budget is going to grow, and knowing that Charter School Capital can help fill in the gaps where necessary, is a huge sigh of relief,” concludes Rosso. “We have developed such a wonderful relationship with the Charter School Capital team. They have great patience and help us do what we’ve got to do. These are the people who are helping me build my dream school.”
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