We are growing
As the Ad Astra Program continues to grow, we count many markers of blessing and success. The majority of our members return year after year and many families graduate their students from our program. New tutors request to be a part of our program and bring interesting new courses to the table. Now that we have the KIDS side offering Nursery through 8th grade, entire families are able to be accommodated in one program. The requests for new membership in the KIDS program alone has more than doubled from our pilot year and we are thrilled that 100% of the families from our first year have opted to return! All of these things tell us that what we are doing is good! What we bring to the community is valuable and what we offer families is worth their time and investment. These facts are so very encouraging!
With all of the good, though, we also find ourselves facing a difficult situation: we are running out of space.
We have sought remedy with our host, and they have approved three additional classrooms to be added to our lease for 2025-26. After that, they have no additional space available for us. They have presented terms for continuing our lease through the 2026-27 Academic Year, and we are welcome to continue our relationship, however, no further growth is possible. Our host is obligated to prioritize Sunday morning operations; Our operations on Tuesdays and Thursdays conflicts with other activities they host throughout the week; And unfortunately their facility is not set up to be able to host a school or a program such as Ad Astra, outside of what we have currently on lease.
In 2023-24 we agreed to a 15% increase per year on our lease.
We added 2 classrooms and re-allocated the rooms we already used in the the building to accommodate the development of the new KIDS side of the program.
Our lease in 2024-25 increased by 15% as agreed.
However, after adding the requested 3 extra classrooms and renegotiating our lease terms for 2025-2026, in order to come closer to "middle ground" in the actual cost of the calculated utilities, custodial supplies and custodial manhours for the space we occupy, the lease is increasing considerably more over the next two years.
Our lease in 2025-26 will increase by approximately 109%, based on the calculated actual cost and it will increase slightly again in 2026-27 to arrive at the calculated actual cost of our leased space. This is a difficult adjustment for many of our families this year and we are doing everything we can to help soften the increase. Unfurtunately, maintaining the spaces that we need is not inexpensive.
That said, the options we have going forward are to 1) cap our growth and stay where we are, without increasing our number of families to share our increasing rent or 2) relocate at least a portion of our program to a facility that is set up to accommodate our presence and growth. We welcome any suggestions that you may have for your own church or other facilities in our area. Please share your ideas below and we will certainly contact them as we prepare for what the next steps are for Ad Astra.
We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-4pm From August through May, and ideally would occupy 18 total spaces.
Let us know if you have any ideas for a new host to consider:
Additionally, we have come to the point of realizing that we may be required to make a signifigant financial investment in whatever comes next for Ad Astra. Beyond your prayers and suggestions for new host options, we also solicit your ideas for fundraising. We have received a few really good ones already! Please keep them coming! Tell us your fundraising suggestions: |
Finally, we have had several inquiries about our ability to accept donations from individuals and businesses, and the ability for those donations to be tax deductible. The answer to both is: YES! We are a qualified Educational 501(c)3 Non Profit Organization; we have a valid EIN; and any donation made to Ad Astra FXBG is tax deductible as it would be with any other charity. As a 501(c)3 Non Profit Organization, we have enjoyed the simplicity of being "self declared" because of our low volume of revenue. We will be filing the necessary paperwork in the coming months to be formally declared as a Non Profit Organization by the IRS and receive the declaration letter which many donors and other organizations require in order to confirm the Non Profit status of our organization. If you or someone you know would be interested in making a tax deductible donation to Ad Astra FXBG to contribute to our future growth and security, please click the button below to complete this portion of the form: