The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners started an exciting new chapter in its non-profit work Monday when it opened the doors to The Greater Dayton School.
The school is not just the culmination of five years of planning. It is the result of all Connor Group associates’ work, which is funding an educational revolution designed to pull kids out of generational poverty.
“We’re student-focused and student-centered with everything we do,” said founding principal A.J. Stich. “It’s one of our core values. So we couldn’t be more excited to finally have our students with us.”
GDS is Ohio’s first private non-religious school exclusively for under-resourced students. The model is unique for several other reasons:
- The school schedule features an extended school day and year. GDS will provide students with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Students also will have a vast array of summer enrichment opportunities.
- The curriculum was developed with a long-term approach. When they reach the age of 27, the goal is to have 80 percent of our students be successful by their own definition, physically and mentally healthy, living lives of character and integrity, financially independent and established in a career.
- In that vein, the school offers extensive wraparound services including pediatric care, dental and vision, mental health services and family support.
The per-student per-year cost will be $30,000 – roughly three times the national average.
“It’s definitely not a cheap model,” said Kids & Community director Ryan Ernst. “But we’re able to invest that kind of money because of Connor Group associates.”
The bulk of Kids & Community funding comes from property operations. That means the better, faster and more often associates can re-engineer properties the more good we can do in the communities where we operate. To date, property operations have contributed more than $30 million to Kids & Community Partners.
The school opened at a temporary site with grades PreK through 3rd. Next year the school will move into its state-of-the-art $45 million campus, where it will grow by one grade every year until it serves 400 students in grades PreK through 8th. The campus also features room to grow the student body to 600.
Raya Anderson, whose son Amir is a kindergartner, said she thought long and hard about what would be the best choice for her son, who is adopted.
Amir has developmental disabilities due to drug and alcohol abuse by his biological parents while he was in the womb. He needs additional support for that reason, Anderson said, and one of the biggest draws to The Greater Dayton school was the wraparound services in the building. Amir will be able to attend occupational therapy and mental health treatments in his school building.
“As a busy working mom, that’s amazing to me, and that is a huge difference maker,” she said.