subject: Fort Worth Can Academy Building New, Expanded Campus [print this page] Fort Worth Can was established in 2000 as a recovery charter high school for at-risk students. A part of the nonprofit organization Texans Can Academies, Fort Worth Can operates both the River Oaks campus, now located in several rented buildings at 5508 Black Oak Lane, and the Campus Drive site at 4301 Campus Drive.
The current River Oaks campus occupies 17,000 square feet. The larger renovated facility will be able to accommodate more students, up to 600. The redesigned building will include a 3,800-square-foot Early Childhood Education Center with a capacity of 88 children ages six weeks to 12 years. The early childhood center, with five classrooms, a kitchen and playground, will be the fourth such facility among Texans Can Academies 10 campuses in the state.
The River Oaks campus was a great place to start but weve outgrown it, said Malcolm Wentworth, Texans Can executive director of corporate operations. Also, we had no mass transit for our students, so one of the main reasons were moving is transportation. Well be on The Ts line. In fact, the bus stops directly in front of the new building. That will help us to serve even more students.
History lesson
Texans Can Academies was founded in 1985 to serve juvenile offenders with remedial education. In 1996, Texans Can became one of the first 20 charter schools in Texas offering high school graduation opportunities to at-risk students.
We are growing, which is good. We continue to graduate more and more, he said. It would be nice to put ourselves out of business but were always going to be here and now well be able to help more students from our new, larger campus.
Building on success
Texas charter schools are not publicly funded to the same extent as traditional school districts. Specifically, charter schools do not have the taxing authority to pay for facilities. To make up the shortfall of revenue from the state, Texans Can relies on donations.
Twenty-five percent of the programs operating budget comes from fundraising, with a large part of that revenue obtained through the Texans Can Charity Car Auction.
This year, 10,000 vehicles were donated nationwide, 6,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone. Proceeds from the auctions help maintain Texans Can campuses. The donations also funded the $1.5 million Alta Mere renovation project plus the initial $1.2 million purchase made in December 2011.
Our car donations have not stopped, said Wentworth, who oversees the auctions. People like what we do. Our mission is raising money to go back directly to the kids.
