The LISC Charter School Financing team hit the ground running during the summer back-to-school season with a $10 million loan to Texas Empowerment Academy. The loan will help support the ground-up construction of an 81,838-square-foot, two-story school facility in Austin, Texas.
The LISC Charter School Financing team closed on a $10 million loan to Texas Empowerment Academy (TxEA) this summer to support a new school for up to 800 students in Austin, Texas. It will allow TxEA, which is currently split across two sites, to consolidate into one building.
The new facility will feature 27 classrooms, office space, a gym, a playground, and athletic fields. The nearly 82,000-square-foot development project will create at least 38 permanent jobs and 400 new seats for students, doubling current capacity.
The investment reflects LISC’s strong commitment to racial equity, supporting a Black-led school and a student population that is 90 percent African American. Research has shown the positive impact of Black teachers on learning. For Black students in particular, the benefits of having a Black teacher include: an increased likelihood of graduating high school and considering college, less exclusionary discipline, being held to higher standards, and increased cultural understanding.
The nearly 82,000-square-foot development project will create at least 38 permanent jobs and 400 new seats for students.
TxEA was founded in 1998 with the mission of providing students with a sound education in a nurturing and stable environment conducive to learning and academic excellence. Its founders wanted to create an academic program that allowed Black and Brown students to excel and have an uplifting educational experience. As David Nolan, principal and superintendent of TxEA shares in a recent profile: “The curriculum that we developed is designed to create greatness…an appreciation for where we have been in the past and a dream for where we will go in the future.”
The school currently educates 400 Pre-K to 12th grade students, in East Austin, with more than 75 percent of students are coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. TxEA has been successful academically and outperformed students of a similar demographic profile in the Austin Independent School District by 8 percent in math and 9 percent in English language arts in 2019, the most recent year for which reliable test data is available.
Students at TxEA benefit from a culturally rich and dynamic curriculum that offers basic skills, fine arts, multicultural studies, self-awareness, self-development, leadership skills, athletics, science, engineering, and computer technology. TxEA prioritizes understanding a student’s social, mental, emotional, and academic needs. In addition, TxEA has Dual Credit and Career Technology and Education programs that extend the school beyond traditional 12th grade completion. Students in these programs can graduate with 36 hours of college credits or receive certificates that allow them to enter the workforce at a competitive advantage.
In addition to LISC’s support for the new TxEA facility, the $38 million project includes an $18 million loan from Facilities Investment Fund and $10 million in equity from the school.