Academy Charter School network gets surprise $7M gift from MacKenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott, in a posting via the Medium platform, said she had donated nearly $2 billion over the past seven months to 343 organizations "supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities."
Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Evan Agostini
A Long Island-based charter school network announced this week that it has received a surprise gift in the form of a $7 million donation from one of the country's most active billionaire philanthropists.
Administrators of the Academy Charter School organization, headquartered in Hempstead, told Newsday they did not solicit the contribution but welcomed the support. The donor is MacKenzie Scott, a prize-winning novelist who helped build the Amazon company with her husband, Jeff Bezos, before the couple divorced in 2019.
“We are excited, honored and humbled to be recognized for such an award,” said Bishop Barrington Goldson, CEO of the charter school group. He described the donation as an acknowledgment of his organization's success in providing quality educations to students in "underserved" communities.
The Academy operates charter schools in Hempstead, Uniondale and Wyandanch.
Wayne Haughton, the executive director, said the bulk of Scott's $7 million contribution will be used to provide extra student services at the Wyandanch location, which operates in a converted hardware store.
"This extraordinary grant will allow us to renew and expand our commitment to continuous learning," Haughton said.
Scott, in a posting via the Medium platform, said she had donated nearly $2 billion over the past seven months to 343 organizations "supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities." Recipients included dozens of similar academies, along with Girl Scout groups, health centers and other nonprofit organizations.
Scott said the latest group of recipients were picked by her staff, as were more than 1,200 beneficiary groups funded in past rounds. Her announcement came Monday, the same day that Bezos told a CNN interviewer he would give away the bulk of his fortune during his lifetime.
Scott's divorce from Bezos left her with billions of dollars in Amazon stock. Forbes magazine describes her as being among the five top-giving philanthropists in the country.
In New York State, charter schools are run by independent boards, with reimbursements from local school districts based on the number of students drawn from the districts.
Academy Charter School in Hempstead serves nearly 1,800 students in grades K-12. More than three-quarters of those students are economically disadvantaged, according to the latest available data compiled by the state Education Department.
Income disparities have not prevented Academy students from earning high marks. For example, results of state testing in math, released last month, show better-than-average achievement among students at the Hempstead campus and also at Academy's school in Uniondale.
School officials say they promote high performance through extended daily schedules that run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and that include enriched studies in math and technology.
In September, the Academy organization opened the third campus, in Wyandanch, with 164 students in kindergarten through second grade. Plans call for expanding that school through grade six within five years.
The Academy group's total operating and support expenses were $50.9 million for the fiscal year ending in June 2021, according to the latest available state figures.
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
