Yellowstone Academy is the premier school in Houston’s historic Third Ward. At Yellowstone, students receive an education that cultivates their intellect, nourishes their spirit, and empowers them to capitalize on their potential to create a fulfilling future.

Last summer, thanks in part to a $400,000 gift from the Kinder Foundation, Yellowstone closed out its $3.1 million Bridge Campaign, a fundraising effort to support the board’s comprehensive strategic plan enabling the school to offer its educational model to even more families in the Greater Third Ward community, by: 

1. Continuing a private, faith-based Pre-K through 4th grade school;
2. Opening a state-funded charter school for 5^th-12th grade students in September 2018; and
3. Building a private, inner-city dormitory that will be a hub for after school and residential life programming.

Affirming its commitment to improving the lives of residents and students in Houston’s historic Third Ward, the Kinder Foundation’s gift specifically applies to:

• Addressing deferred maintenance needs at the historic, former Douglass Elementary School, out of which Yellowstone currently operates.
• Running Yellowstone’s existing middle school for the 2017-2018 school year while also building its operational capacity to prepare for the launch of Yellowstone College Prep in the fall of 2018. This free, open-enrollment public charter school will grow to serve middle and high school students and will be co-located with Yellowstone Academy in the historic Douglass Elementary building. The funds will be used to support the food program that provides two hot meals a day to students, the transportation program that provides bus service to and from school every day for the vast majority of middle school students, and for office operations.

The Kinder Foundation looks forward to watching Yellowstone Academy’s progress and impact as a result of this visionary, strategic plan.