SchoolSmartKC Announces Third Investment to Help Two High Performing Charter Schools Expand

KANSAS CITY, Mo., (April 25, 2017) – SchoolSmartKC today announced its third major investment of resources to help two high-performing charter schools increase the number of kids they are able to educate.

Over the next three years, SchoolSmartKC will support Crossroads Charter Schools with $1.32 million to support the creation of its Quality Hill middle school and for the initial design of Crossroads High School. With this support, Crossroads is poised to offer a quality education to over 700 more students in the KCPS boundaries.

In addition, SchoolSmartKC will grant Scuola Vita Nuova (SVN) in Northeast Kansas City $621,000 to allow the school to double its enrollment, providing 207 additional students a quality education.

This is the third in a series of investments announced in April by SchoolSmartKC. The organization previously awarded $563,000 for the Communities in Schools program benefiting 10 schools and also awarded up to $2.0 million to select schools showing academic promise in the Kansas City Public School District.

Crossroads opened its Central Street school as a K-5 with 190 students in September 2012 and in just three years, became one of the highest-rated charter schools in the state of Missouri. In August 2016, Crossroads Academy – Quality Hill opened as its second elementary school, serving 186 students in K-3. With SchoolSmartKC’s support, it will grow to serve 422 students in K-8. In total, with this support from SchoolSmartKC, Crossroads will be able to provide an exceptional education to over 1,300 local students in grades K-12.

Scuola Vita Nuova (SVN) has quickly become a pillar of the Northeast Kansas City community and a school with improving academic performance.  Under Principal Nicole Goodman’s leadership, the school has shown regular and substantial progress for a student population for which English is their second language (ELL rate of 71.8%) and with a poverty rate of 96% as measured by the free/reduced lunch program. Student achievement has increased from well below state average to within 10% of state average over a five-year period (2010-2015).

Today, SVN serves 207 students in grades K-8, almost all of which live within a 2 mile radius of the school located at Independence Avenue and Garfield Avenue, in Pendleton Heights. Since 2010, the school has a:

• 92% student retention rate;
• average daily attendance of 95.8%; and
• 100% face-to-face parent/teacher conferences.

”SchoolSmartKC looks to ensure that local students have ample quality educational opportunities to help them reach their extraordinary potential”, said Awais Sufi, President and CEO of SchoolSmartKC. “We are thrilled to help schools that have become pillars in our community bring even more benefit to these young people and their families.”

SchoolSmartKC was incubated out of the Kauffman Foundation and is funded by the Hall Family Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation. It is an independent 501(c)3 organization. For more information, visit www.schoolsmartkc.org.