Capital Campaign
Born from the heart and soul of experienced, pragmatic community leaders proven in advancing the Hispanic community, the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) stands as a demonstrated, replicable model for lifting up children, supporting families, and transforming neighborhoods.
UNO has worked since 1984 to challenge Hispanics to pursue excellence. A long-term advocate for education reform, UNO has developed a Charter School Network to put its philosophies to the test by tackling the chronic and critical educational issues facing low-income neighborhood schools.
UNO is the largest direct service charter school management firm in Illinois. Reaching from Gage Park to Avondale, UNO currently serves nearly 3,500 students enrolled at eight schools in Chicago. UNO’s autonomous, publicly-funded elementary and secondary charter schools operate with the results-driven philosophy that innovative teaching methods for underserved children produce better-educated students.
As a result of this demonstrated success, UNO was invited to create and ultimately open Esperanza Charter School in New Orleans to respond directly to the urgent needs facing the Hispanic community of that region, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. UNO is currently responding to similar requests to replicate its educational philosophies in communities across North America.
UNO is a recognized leader in building strong educational institutions and leveraging them to meet the unique needs of overcrowded, inner-city communities. Today, UNO is launching a $50 million capital campaign designed to leverage $150 million public and philanthropic dollars to build an additional 10 schools serving more than 5,400 students by 2017.
The Campaign is chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
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UNO’s proven track record demonstrates its effectiveness in providing students with high-quality education. Data from the 2007 Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) indicates that UNO schools outperform Chicago Public Schools (CPS), with 71.6% of UNO students meeting or exceeding state standards. In addition, UNO schools consistently have a higher attendance rate than the local school district, with an attendance rate of 94.6% vs. CPS’s 91.6%.
UNO Charter Schools are structured learning environments focused on clear goals and standards. UNO’s philosophy for public education focuses on strong management, discipline, and high expectations for its entire school community. This philosophy applies not only to students, but to faculty and staff, who are held to the highest levels of performance and accountability.
Our parents are held to high standards, as well. Through our Structured English Immersion model, UNO’s students pass their new language skills to family members. As a result, a sense of urgency to learn English grows. Fluency in English opens economic and social doors for families, empowering them and their neighbors to succeed.
The promise of safer streets, well-equipped schools, and new opportunities for communities is fulfilled for UNO Charter School students, 80% of whom are accepted into high-quality local and national high schools. These schools have a typical graduation and college attendance rate above 85%.
UNO is able to achieve these results due to our sound education and management model, the passion and professionalism of community leaders, and determined and dedicated parents who work hard for a better life for their children.
It is evident that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is unable to meet the needs of growing Hispanic communities that increasingly face overcrowding, staggered scheduling, and unavoidable busing. On Chicago’s southwest side, for example, the total number of K-8 public school students in October 2006 was 22,701. The estimated five-year increase for the population in this area suggests that, by 2011, K-8th graders who live on the southwest side will total 25,201.
According to CPS’ Office of Demographics, current capacities of southwest side elementary schools are at 13,992 students. To address expected K-8th grade population growth within the next four years, an additional 13,000 seats will need to be created by 2011.
Traditional methods of creating a public school facility cost as much as $25 million and require four years. Considering the expense and time to address a looming classroom seat shortage, it is unlikely that CPS can accommodate an additional 13,000 seats on the southwest side by 2011. In response, UNO will continue to open and operate additional charter schools across Chicago that will be based on its proven model for academic success with its students and cost effective model for construction and operations. UNO utilizes a design/build delivery method to achieve considerable savings in both time and costs.
To meet this demand, UNO is seeking $50 million from philanthropic sources to leverage $150 million needed to complete its comprehensive plan to build and maintain 16 new schools serving a projected enrollment of 5,820 students each year. Further, approximately 10 percent of each philanthropic dollar raised will support a High-School Scholarship Program.
Mayor Richard M. Daley has graciously agreed to chair this special campaign. UNO is proud that Chicago’s educational and civic leaders encourage the significant expansion and replication in communities across the city’s southwest side.
Over the past three years, UNO has renovated and opened four K-8th grade schools, educating 1,566 students across Chicago. UNO has already begun its rapid expansion across the southwest side with the renovation of the vacant A and SP Bakery facility in the Archer Heights community, which will contain three separate charter campuses: two K-8 elementary schools and one high school (phasing in one high school class every 4 years to reach a total of 600 students). This facility is planned to open for the 2008-09 school year.
UNO has been effective in raising the capital necessary to develop their charter schools. It is the successful relationship UNO has with its bond investors that will enable it to secure a portion of the capital it needs to expand its charter school operations. Until now, UNO has been able to expand without the financial assistance from traditional sources such as philanthropy, CPS funding or Tax Increment Financing for the design and creation of its charter school facilities.
With your investment toward our goal of $50 million from local, regional and national philanthropic partners, along with a total of $50 million from public funds and $50 million in additional bond financing, UNO will have the resources required to fully implement its plan for 16 schools serving 5,820 K-12 children each year.
This construction consists of 10 elementary schools and one high school, and will accommodate a student body of 5,820 K-12 children.
The leveraging of these limited public funds would enable UNO to secure the capital required to enact an effective construction program and to ensure the delivery of these schools at 100% capacity over the next five school years.
Philanthropic partners to this expansion, aiding Chicago’s ability to compete in an increasingly global economy, will join a cadre of investors committed to providing a tremendous financial and academic return to our city and to the families that need it the most.
They will unite with a burgeoning network of parents, educators and opinion leaders whose awareness of and positive attitudes about charter schools fostered an environment that produced a 12% annual growth rate in the number of new charter schools that opened in 2007.
UNO plans to effectively leverage two to three times the amount of private capital raised to deliver state-of-the-art schools serving more than 5,820 students within the next 60 months.
Students at UNO schools achieve at rates higher than their public school peers but upon entering overcrowded and underperforming neighborhood high schools, their dropout rates approach 50%. However, UNO has found that those students who receive the scholarships necessary to attend private high schools continue to realize excellent results. The scholarships granted through this program will fill the funding gap for those students who could not otherwise pursue this opportunity. Depending on students’ success in securing spots at selective-enrollment Chicago Public High Schools, these funds may also be used to encourage and enable students to pursue educational opportunities beyond high school. Initial funding for the High School Scholarship Program will come from a set-aside or reserve fund of 10% of each philanthropic dollar raised.
Your investment in these children and their neighborhoods will ensure they’ll have the benefit of entry into a cycle of achievement and self-development at the grassroots level that can truly advance an entire population. UNO’s “no excuses” philosophy can be seen in:
- Faculty and staff who are carefully chosen, regularly evaluated, and committed to abide by a higher standard
- Parents who assure success for their children by signing a contract and engaging in the educational process
- Encouragement of the English language to be the language spoken, read and written both inside and outside the classroom
- A Management model that is overseen locally and held to the highest standards of accountability
- Resources for programming that provides vital support for children and families that extends outside of the school day and into the community
Today, the United Neighborhood Organization calls upon you and asks you to invest in its future to make a difference through excellent education in our communities. With your help UNO can continue to change the climate and culture of mediocrity and failure in many inner-city schools and bring forth a day where excellence and success for our children is not a hope… it’s an expectation.