Momentum Academy (formerly EAGLE College Prep)

Momentum Academies MENU

Momentum Overview

 Momentum Academic Performance

Momentum Fox Park

MomentumEAGLE Gravois Park

Momentum Tower Grove East

Momentum Tower Grove South

Momentum Operations and Finance

Sponsor Evaluation

The MU Office of Charter School Operations monitors school operations throughout the year and provides an annual statement regarding how well a school is complying with its stated charter goals.  These web pages provide information about the school, including

• Overview
• Academic Performance
• Governance and Operations

Based on this and information gathered in other monitoring activities our office conducts, we provide the adjoining Sponsor Statement.

Prior Years
Sponsor Statements

SY2017

SY2018

Sponsor Statement SY2019 EAGLE College Prep

EAGLE College Prep completed the first year of their second charter. EAGLE is now running four campuses, with three at 6^th grade. The original campus graduated its first 8^th grade class this year, with most students being with the school from 3^rd grade. The board has set as a goal and taken steps to work on securing an expedited renewal for the next renewal. This report is structured by the expectations set forth in the Performance Contract with MU.  EAGLE is fully meeting its charter commitments in most areas with mixed compliance in Academic Outcomes.

• The Board of Directors abides by all relevant laws and regulations (including Missouri Sunshine Law) in conducting meetings and in oversight of school operations. The Board consistently maintains a quorum and conducts business in a timely and efficient manner, in part because members serve on committees that address board business in greater detail. Board members have been recruited with a plan for board diversity.  Current recruitment efforts have yielded new members with a broader variation on backgrounds, helping to shape the board into a more well-rounded body. As the board has examined school operations to develop a strategic plan, it asked the MU Sponsorship office to conduct a staff survey, which we completed 2^nd
• The EAGLE Board of Directors and its Finance Committee provide regular and detailed oversight of financial operations. Open Sky Education continues to provide back office management for the school. This year the schools had issues with enrollment and attendance, including accuracy of reporting. This impacted the budget and fund balance.  EAGLE ended the year with a 7.94% fund balance which is lower than the previous year due, in part, to state corrections for enrollment and higher than budgeted special education expenses.
• EAGLE schools continues the same culture as they grow into middle school at all campuses. All the principals returned this year including the newly appointed principal of Gravois Park. Teachers and staff speak about the issues concerning the number of assessments and curriculum alignment to Missouri Standards. There have been concerns about the middle school curriculum and alignment to the model. Regional leadership is working on these issues to improve academics. EAGLE graduated its first 8^th grade class this year from the Tower Grove South Campus.
• EAGLE has adapted their blended learning model to fit unique situations in each school. For middle school classes, students go through a traditional model of learning, including homeroom. At the primary level, while EAGLE’s model dictates 2 teachers I a class of 30 (a certified teacher and an assistant), in some buildings with lower enrollment, there are smaller classes with only one teacher. Classroom size has been a concern with some buildings, as the model calls for 30 students and 2 teachers in the classroom. All of these issues are being discussed by the board, school leaders, and Open Sky through the strategic planning process.
• The 2019 Missouri Assessment Program introduced a report that did not include an APR score. New assessments and reporting formats in recent years are challenges to a fair assessment of academic outcomes and progress. EAGLE has met its target of performing better than St Louis Public Schools in ELA and Math, but not in Science.  Among schools there is significant variation in performance.

EAGLE College Prep serves the children in South St. Louis neighborhoods with four school campuses.  EAGLE Tower Grove South opened in 2013 and has added a grade each year, serving Kg-7 in 2017.  EAGLE Fox Park opened in 2015, EAGLE Tower Grove East in 2016 and EAGLE Gravois Park in 2017.  All schools will eventually serve students Kg-8.

Mission  (Provided by school)

The mission of EAGLE Prep is to develop serving leaders by providing a rigorous college prep learning community where we work together toward the pursuit of academic excellence and character development in a safe, supportive, and loving learning environment.

Our Mission Statement emphasizes the two-fold purpose of our school: To strive for academic greatness in an environment that fosters positive character development. These two purposes go hand-in-hand and without one, the other is far more difficult to achieve and less meaningful even if it is achieved.

Philosophy  (Provided by school)

EAGLE Prep believes that college preparation begins at an early age, not just the few years before college. The elementary years are formative years, years that set the ground work for success in college. At EAGLE, scholars will be exposed to college early on through field trips, guest speakers, and by making lifelong learning part of the school culture and environment.

EAGLE Prep believes that to achieve educational greatness, scholars need to spend more time focused on core courses to prepare them for success in college. We will spend extra time daily on reading, language arts, and mathematics using not only traditional, time-tested curricula, but also utilizing new programs that integrate the benefits of technology to meet the learning needs of all scholars. Scholars will develop a tenacious spirit to work hard and efficiently at school.

 EAGLE Prep believes in building a foundation for scholar success by focusing on character development. The combination of high expectations, paying attention to detail, proactively celebrating success, developing a sense of team, and building self-efficacy will lead scholars to be prepared not only to excel academically, but also prepared for other challenges that are waiting for them throughout their lives.

Our Values  (Provided by school)

EAGLE Prep is relentlessly focused on providing a world-class academic program that instills the following values:

• Loving:  Above all else we love our scholars and will in all things put them first knowing they can and will succeed. We love each child we serve too much to lower our expectations or let them slip through the cracks. We treat our colleagues, parents, and communities with the same love.
• Leading:  To us, leadership is supporting, equipping, and inspiring others to achieve significant results. Through our leadership we seek to serve our scholars, parents, communities, and co-workers.
• Learning:  We know that maintaining the status quo is not good enough, and we will push our scholars and ourselves to the next level every day. We are grounded in the belief that there is always a better way to accomplish our goals.
•  Lasting:  The cornerstone of who we are is our mission, vision, and values. We build upon the foundation of the work of those who came before, while steadfastly remaining entrepreneurial as we chart new territory into the future.
• Laughing:  We seek to live life to the fullest and enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with others and create new things in this educational endeavor.

Our Virtues (Provided by school)

EAGLE Prep will teach students strong character habits by using the following virtues as guideposts to our development as serving leaders:

•  Integrity: personal consistency in moral goodness.
•  Diligence: intrinsic energy for completing good work.
•  Courage: the capacity to overcome fear to do good.
•  Responsibility: accountability to myself and others.
•  Self-sacrifice: purposeful action exchanging personal loss for the good of others.
•  Justice: the capacity to determine and preserve our common rights.
•  Respect: civility flowing from personal humility.

Student Demographics