Founded in 2004, Horizon Science Academy - Dayton Elementary (HSA Dayton) is a nonprofit charter public school that serves roughly 195 low-income students across grades K-5. Managed by nonprofit Concept Schools, HSA Dayton provides its students with an innovative world-class education, rich in math, science, and technology, focused on preparing students to become bold inquirers, problem solvers, and ethical leaders, skill-ready for post-secondary education to meet the challenges of a competitive global workforce. HSA Dayton serves a student body that is 94.6% minority and 100% low-income.
HSA Dayton has seen strong and growing demand for its educational offerings, with enrollment rising from 150 students in 2021 to 195 in 2023 and a growing waitlist. To meet this demand, HSA Dayton plans to grow enrollment to 230 students over the next year and reach a cap of 250 students by 2028. The school shared lease space with its secondary counterpart, Horizon Science Academy High School. With this anticipated growth, it was clear that a new building would soon become necessary.
Working with nonprofit developer New Plan Learning, they determined that they would need to expand by 4,272 square feet and worked with an architect and Carra Builders (as general contractor) to design a two story expansion with three classrooms (to include kindergarten-style toilers) on the first floor and six offices on the second floor. In addition to meeting student growth, the expansion provides more administrative and flexible programmatic space. The project also included revising and upgrading the HVAC units to comply with standard building and fire codes, all at an approximate $1.25 MM total development cost.
This amount made it difficult for the school to finance the whole project with its cash reserves, and obtaining a loan from a conventional source was virtually impossible because the school could not offer collateral to secure the debt.
This difficult gap in financing was where Charter School Finance & Development (CSFD) came into play. To enable this expansion from 195 to ultimately 250 students, CSFD provided a $500,000 tenant improvement loan, leveraging an additional $750,000 provided by the school. This $500,000 unsecured tenant improvement loan, offered at a below-market rate, was structured to reimburse the school once they had expended that amount to make for a fast, streamlined construction process. Construction commenced in early March 2024 and was completed within five months, making the expansion ready for use in the 2024-25 school year.