COLORA — West Nottingham Academy (WNA) has announced a new partnership with the Casa Laxmi Foundation, an international charitable trust. The partnership comes after WNA nearly closed due to financial difficulties. Under the new partnership, the school aims to expand from offering grades 9-12 into a K-12 boarding school.
Casa Laxmi officials stressed that the foundation has not bought the school or assumed control of it.
“Nothing is sold or taken over,” said one of Casa Laxmi’s seven founders, Kiran Kulkarni. “The only thing that has happened is that Casa Laxmi came into the picture and made life easier for WNA.”
Founded in 1744, WNA is one of Maryland’s most historic schools and a non-profit. Kulkarni noted that the school relied on donations to survive and that the school reached a point where donations weren’t enough to maintain WNA’s operations.
According to WNA’s tax forms, the school currently has expenses of $5,492,816 and a revenue of $4,048,944 – leaving a discrepancy of slightly over $1.4 million.
The revenue shortfall WNA has been experiencing has caused the nearly 280-year-old school to dip into its endowment; which Sandra Wirth, WNA’s Head of Schools, said the school has fully depleted over two years.
“Since I arrived at the school a year and a half ago, we have been asking for donations from alumni,” said Wirth. “Last year, we raised close to a million dollars and we were on track to do that this year but it just wasn’t enough.”
The exact expenses that led to WNA’s financial hardship were not disclosed, however Kulkarni stated that the operating costs alone were enough for the school to lose “millions of dollars a year.”
With a depleted endowment, low donations and falling enrollment due to the pandemic, WNA officials weighed selling the school – which is how Casa Laxmi became involved. Kulkarni said the foundation was attracted to the school because of its history and powerful name.
“Since both Casa Laxmi and WNA are both not-for-profit, it is one and the same thing, so why not take something that has been going on for 280 years and join hands with them, so we can bring in some of our financial resources to make it more successful,” said Kulkarni.
WNA alums have expressed skepticism over the partnership, as the non-profit organization is not currently partnered with any other school. Alumni especially noted how Casa Laxmi has been sitting on plans to build a waterfront residential school of over 200 acres in Panama City, Fl., for several years.
“Casa Laxmi’s plans to build a residential school in Panama City got delayed due to Covid,” said Kulkarni. “Then, when we saw WNA’s serious need for immediate funding, the founding members of Casa Laxmi decided to assist WNA.”
Kulkarni said that, in assisting WNA, the foundation plans to cover the school’s operating expenses that are not covered by WNA’s current income.
“Nothing needs to be paid other than operating expenses, so Casa Laxmi said they cant make any commitments because they do not know how much money will be required but they will continue to provide money for working capital and the management team,” said Kulkarni.
According to the Casa Laxmi Foundation’s tax information, the foundation has roughly $6.6 million in assets. Kulkarni explained that the foundation generates its revenue from donations from its founding members.
“Casa Laxmi gets funds from its founding members for worthy causes, plus the founding members can also arrange ‘soft loans’ to tie over its short term needs,” said Kulkarni.
Casa Laxmi did not comment on if their financial interests for WNA are paid outright, through loans or increased member donations.
Moving forward, WNA has instated a new board of trustees, with Kulkarni as the board chair, since Casa Laxmi will fund remaining operational expenses of WNA for the future.
Casa Laxmi and WNA officials have stated that they do not plan to lay off any of the current staff at WNA and they anticipate to get the school back to a healthy financial position in 18-24 months time.
“Casa Laxmi is providing funds so that WNA can operate and expand,” said Kulkarni.
Casa Laxmi stated that the foundation has many plans for WNA, including expanding into a K-12 school, balancing its local and international student populations, upgrading facilities to accommodate 350 students, creating a mentorship program and building a private museum on campus are their top priorities.
In Casa Laxmi’s short-term plan to increase the student enrollment and balance the population, Casa Laxmi plans to provide financial assistance to lower income students in the local area.
“That is what the Casa Laxmi mission is all about – rather than providing small financial assistance to many, WNA will be transformed to provide full assistance to a few,” said Kulkarni. “Casa Laxmi intends to provide full financial assistance to many, many, many students in time to come.”
As for expanding from grades 9-12 into a K-12 institution, Kulkarni said the foundation will move one grade level at a time – starting with the creation of an eighth grade class, then a seventh grade class and so on.
WNA has a current population of roughly 100 students, according to Kulkarni, and in the next 18 months, Casa Laxmi plans to have that number up to 150. To achieve this, Kulkarni said they plan to continue to give reduced tuition prices to local students and financial assistance to more local, low income students.
In order to accommodate the anticipated student population expansion, Kulkarni stated that more dorms will need to be built on WNA’s campus. Along with housing, numerous capital projects are in the pipeline as they wish to add air conditioning to a few of WNA’s facilities.
One of those capital projects is a proposed on-campus, private museum that Kulkarni said will only be available to the public by invitation.
“We want to make it a significant art museum in the area,” said Kulkarni. “This isn’t critical for the school but it attracts people and this is quite an art-based school, so we want to create a museum to add to that.”
Casa Laxmi stressed that they do not plan to end the partnership once all of the expansion projects are complete and WNA is back on a stable financial foundation,.
“We would like this partnership to last forever,” said Kulkarni. “The success clearly depends on the number of students enrolled at WNA which is where we need help from its alumni to refer their kids, grandkids, nephews, nieces and any other relatives and their friends.”
Cecil Whig Clip
https://www.cecildaily.com/news/west-nottingham-academy-announces-partnership-with-charitable-trust-plans-to-expand-school-to-k-12/article_cc0564af-d6f4-5759-a156-88857c582264.html
