History of SchoolStart
SchoolStart was founded initially as a Limited Liability Corporation by Jonathan Krown, Johana Sand, and Jon Bacal in 1998 based on experience of starting a successful charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota.
SchoolStart focused on developing and assisting other founding groups to start charter schools in Minnesota through 1999.
SchoolStart was restructured as a non-profit in 2000 and earned status as National Partner of Walton Family Foundation in efforts to start quality charter schools in urban centers.
SchoolStart grew to become the most successful non-profit organization starting charter schools in the United States, assisting over 40 new charter schools to open in Colorado and Minnesota from 2000 to 2005 and achieving a 100% rate of success in charter authorization with our full-partner schools. The founders moved on to other organizations serving charter schools.
SchoolStart restructured in 2006 to focus both on start-ups and the development of existing charter schools. Client start-up groups expanded to California, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.