Local Financial Support

A major component of our strategy for building successful regions of high performing schools is the regional support structure that we plan to build for each region.  This structure includes academic, operational, professional development and community engagement support for all schools within a region.  We are also unique in that our financial model enables us to become financially self-sustaining at 8 schools within that region and we no longer need continued fundraising. Until we build out a full region of 8 schools over 5 years, we rely on local philanthropic support to enable us to hire a strong regional support team.

For this reason, we seek to obtain $3.5 million in committed funding in order to green-light a new region. This full commitment would be disbursed during year 0 through year 4 of Rocketship in a new region and is in addition to typical Federal and philanthropic grants for individual school start-up.

Concurrent with charter application approval, we seek to secure written commitment for the total $3.5 million and payment of the first half of this regional funding for Years 0 and 1.   Payment of the remaining portion for Years 2 through 4 at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2 will allow us to successfully scale a new region.  In addition to financial necessity, this commitment on the part of local philanthropic organizations also underscores the region’s political and community support, which are equally as important in successfully establishing Rocketship in a new region.