Annual Appeal (GEM) | Sponsor-a-Student

Annual Appeal

Annual Donation Pledge Drive

The Annual Nova Classical Academy Pledge Drive will go from October 1, 2009 to June 9, 2010.

Learn about the GEM (Give Every Month) prorgam.

Please download and send in this ACH form to have your donation deducted automatically from your account.

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Please download this one-time pledge card.

Annual Appeals Letter to Parents and Community

Dear Nova Classical Academy community,

As a parent of a seventh-grader who enrolled this past year in the School of Logic, I am acutely aware of the opportunities that Nova Classical Academy affords students compared to other schools. Nova ignites a passion for learning through engaging the students in analytical thinking and examination of historical text and literature that have shaped the world. Nova builds knowledge that prepares students to make rational connections among facts in all disciplines. Nova reinforces that striving for temperance, fortitude, justice, and prudence is a worthy endeavor.

Nova's high student achievement on state and national testing is evidence that the Nova classical education is one of the best programs in the state and on par with the best in the nation. In fact our sponsor, Friends of Education, benchmarks Nova's achievement with a magnet school for gifted and talented students because there is not a traditional public school in the area that achieves at a comparatively high level.

As chair of the Development Committee, I would like to thank you for investing in the classical education of the students at Nova in the past and raise awareness that this is a critical year to maintaining the high quality of our classical education program. Though the education is on par with private schools, Nova Classical Academy is a public school whose funding comes primarily from the state on a per student basis.
This year, the state is withholding 27% of the education funding to public schools to balance the state budget. Schools must find a way to make 100% of the monthly payments with only 73% of the money. Schools, including Nova, must borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to bridge the funding delay. The interest on these loans will have to be diverted away from money that was to go toward the education of our children.

At the same time, the state is implementing new science standards that will make public schools in Minnesota more competitive nationally and internationally. However, Nova's current facility does not have the science lab to accommodate these more rigorous standards.

We therefore have two major challenges before us this year- shielding the education of our students from the 27% withholding and completing the science lab for our rigorous science program. The Development Committee has set the 2009-10 fundraising target at $100,000 to overcome these challenges and ensure that our students continue to have the highest quality classical education program.

The committee is introducing the "Give Every Month" (GEM) program this year to begin to build a stronger, more reliable foundation of financial support to protect the school from the volatility of the state funding and to invest in the long-term vision of a single-campus, K-12, nationally- acclaimed classical academy. We will be expanding our outreach again this year with the Sponsor-a-Student program and are in the process of planning a gala fundraising event.

The Development Committee looks forward to working with the entire Nova Classical Academy community to overcome these challenges. As a proud parent of a Nova Classical Academy student and as former Executive Director I know how hard the students work and how important their leadership will become; they need and deserve our support.

Wendy Swanson-Choi
Development Committee Chair, 2009-10

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