North Star Academy: General Board Helps Improve Educational Opportunities in Underserved Communities

In 1990, the General Board began its Positive Social Purpose Lending Program by originating loans to support affordable housing. Since that time, the General Board has financed a variety of projects throughout the United States, expanding the scope of this program beyond affordable housing to include health care facilities, homeless and transitional housing, community centers and charter schools.

The General Board recently provided funding to the North Star Academy charter schools, located in underserved neighborhoods in and near Newark, New Jersey. Philadelphia-based The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) and San Francisco-based Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) partnered to provide approximately $19 million to fund the North Star Academy schools. Of this amount, the General Board financed $7.2 million through its relationship with LIIF. Uncommon Schools, one of the most respected nonprofit charter school management organizations in the country, manages the four North Star Academy campuses. The $19 million loan will fund the acquisition of one of the campuses, prepayment of a 50-year lease for a second campus and much-needed renovations at both schools. The two campuses, located in downtown Newark and in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Newark, serve more than 450 middle-school students.

Of North Star’s 760 students enrolled across four campuses (one elementary school, two middle schools and one high school), nearly all are of African-American or Hispanic heritage, and more than 75% qualify for free or discounted lunches through the National School Lunch Program.

Charter schools are public schools with operating budgets financed by public funds. However, they rely heavily on private financing for building and other capital costs. Charter schools are largely absent from many distressed urban communities throughout the country. These schools generally operate independent of the local school board, and they are responsible for hiring their teachers, formulating their curriculum and managing their budget, while meeting all state educational standards. To avoid discrimination, acceptance to charter schools is based almost entirely on a lottery system.

North Star’s students consistently outperform the Newark district and statewide averages on state proficiency tests. Results from the 2008 tests revealed that 100% of North Star eighth-graders scored as “advanced” or “proficient” in both English and Math, compared with state averages of 81% in English and 68% in math. This outstanding performance also compares very favorably with traditional public schools in Newark, where only 57% of students scored as advanced or proficient in English and 38% scored as advanced or proficient in math. North Star’s students’ outperformance has not only been recognized on a district and state level, but also nationally. Business Week recently included North Star on its list of “America’s Best Schools,” and it was selected a “Parent’s Choice Public School in New Jersey” by GreatSchools. More information is available at www.greatschools.net/top-high-schools/new-jersey.  

The education provided by North Star has proved to be an important building block to the future success of its students. For five consecutive years, 100% of North Star’s students graduated from high school and were accepted into four-year colleges—where they receive support services from North Star to help them stay in school. The superior academic results by North Star’s students have created a waiting list that consistently includes about 2,000 students.

The General Board’s loan to North Star is just one element of a wider effort by the Positive Social Purpose Lending Program to improve schools in distressed areas. Since 2007, the General Board has invested approximately $54 million in charter schools in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, California and Minnesota.