The new 51,407-square-foot addition to the existing school building includes a new gymnasium, a theater, a library, art and music rooms, science labs, a covered, outdoor gym, weight room and general-use classrooms.
The impact
The three-story building will serve sixth through 12th grade students as the K-12 school’s enrollment grows, said Jesse Bates, chief operating officer for Valor Education.
Since opening in 2020, the school’s enrollment has doubled from 500 to 1,000 students, Bates said. With an initial capacity for 750 students, around 200 students were in portables last school year, Valor North Austin Headmaster Conor Hill said.
The addition will allow Valor North Austin to now serve over 1,200 students. The school will welcome its first graduating class of 15-20 students this year and will eventually graduate classes of 60-70 students, Bates said.
The new space will provide students new opportunities, he said. Athletic teams will no longer need to travel off campus for practices while the high school theater program will expand through a new Shakespearean black box theater featuring wraparound seating.
Additionally, students can begin participating in weightlifting and use a new kiln for pottery-making.
The background
The mission of Valor charter schools is to educate the whole person through a classical liberal arts curriculum, according to the school’s website.
Charter schools admit students through an open enrollment process. Because tuition is free, if applications exceed available spots, a lottery system is typically used to determine admission.
To finance the $25 million expansion at its North Austin campus, Valor Education raised $2.3 million in philanthropic funding from parents and community members, Bates said.
Bates noted that state funding for public education has not increased since 2019. Meanwhile, charter schools cannot rely on property tax increases and receive little state funding that is specially allocated for facilities, he said.
“We have to raise money in order to grow and serve more students,” Bates said.
Looking ahead
This fall, Valor Education will move students into a new, permanent facility for its South Austin campus. The charter school district will also break ground on a permanent campus for Valor Leander off Kauffman Loop near the border of Leander and Georgetown, Bates said.
- Opened Aug. 6
- 14200 N. I-35, Austin
- www.valoreducation.org
