Case Study:
Led by co-founders and mother-daughter team Toby Bornstein and Gayle Nadler, Multicultural Learning Center (MLC) opened its doors in Fall 2001 in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. MLC brings together a diverse community of learners where cultural and individual differences are the building blocks of academic, social, and intrapersonal success. Within an environment of positive cross-cultural attitudes and social justice, students achieve bi-literacy in Spanish and English by the eighth grade through MLC’s dual immersion program. In student-centered classrooms, students master skills and knowledge within the context of interdisciplinary themes and hands-on activities, and a constructivist approach to teaching and learning enables all children to achieve their maximum potential.
EdTec Partnership
MLC has been an EdTec back-office client since 2014. MLC had planned to open a separate facility for its middle school program for many years, and was able to accomplish this with the support of EdTec. Once MLC identified a facility and decided to pursue bond financing, their client manager conducted financial analyses that compared various enrollment plans and cost structures. This helped MLC to determine just how much bond it could afford, how many students it would need to enroll to meet its financial projections, and how it would need to manage its cash flow. EdTec performed various stress tests to make sure MLC would be prepared to take on this debt obligation.
EdTec communicated with the investor to share this information and help them to understand the nuances of education finance as well as MLC’s capabilities. Armed with this information, the investor could set appropriate financial metrics and agreements. For example, EdTec’s financial analyses revealed that certain bond covenants would need to be phased in over time, and that in order to cover certain unforeseen costs – such as installing solar panels as part of the CUP conditions – it would be best for MLC to pursue long-term financing.
Results
MLC’s middle school facility opened on September 11, 2017. The partnership between MLC and EdTec staff enabled the school to achieve their goal of successfully purchasing a new facility for their middle school. Having a separate facility is critical to their objectives of fostering age-appropriate educational environments, as well as being able to grow the K-5 program to a sustainable size. MLC was able to utilize the financial analysis expertise of EdTec staff to strategically select the facility financing that would be sustainable for the school long-term. Because of the separate facility and additional space, MLC was able to grow its elementary school enrollment by 70 students this school year.
Learn more about MLC at https://www.mlccharter.org/
