The facility is very large and perfect to operate a charter school. An approximately 83,000 sq. ft. building and 6 acres of undeveloped land makes the facility the perfect spot for an educational campus. In the cross-section of Aurora Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, and Denver Public Schools, Lotus School for Excellence is at a unique location to serve students of all three districts who are interested in receiving an education in Math, Science, and Technology. Developing these highly desired skills, students can go on to pursue an education in the Science and Engineering disciplines. Lotus School is the only Math, Science, and Technology charter school in Aurora and currently has an enrollment of 275 students in the sixth through ninth grades. Lotus School offers a rigorous, innovative, and challenging curriculum with a focus on preparing students to pursue higher education.

"This new campus was our dream from the day we leased the space for our operations for the 2007-08 school year. The space was previously a private school, and we currently share it with a church and daycare. With two gyms, one conference and event center, a commercial kitchen, two science laboratories, three playgrounds, many spacious classrooms, and ample parking, this facility is ideal for a charter school" said Matt U. Yapanel, PhD, board president of Lotus School.

Many charter schools suffer from the lack of a gym and have to make code improvements to utilize a building as a school. However, this new facility has everything in place to operate a charter school and will not require any renovations to fully utilize the space. "As the school board, it took us approximately six months to secure a loan from Self-Help Credit Union, which is a non-profit specializing in financing charter schools. We also had to go though a one-million-dollar credit enhancement from Building Hope (a Washington, DC-based corporation that specializes in charter school financing) in order to complete the transaction; the school’s short history and current number of students was not sufficient to justify the full loan for the facility.

Building Hope granted the largest credit enhancement in their history to help Lotus realize its dream. We are very fortunate to have these two financial corporations backing our operations", explained Dr. Yapanel. "It is also a miracle to be able to purchase such a facility before even completing our second year in operation. Many charter schools rent space, which costs much more than owning, for at least five years before they can qualify for such a large loan. As Lotus, our goal in our new permanent facility is to become one of the top charter schools in the state, and we truly believe the 

facility will be a tremendous help in achieving this goal,” continued Dr. Yapanel. “Another benefit of this location is the undeveloped land which currently is partially utilized as a baseball field. Our current growth plan is to become a middle and high school, but when the school reaches its full capacity, we have plans to expand to a K-12 school. At that time the undeveloped land will become host to our new elementary school" Dr. Yapanel further added.

"I really encourage neighborhood parents to pay a visit to the school, explore the facility, and get a sense of the school culture and mission. Providing the best possible education is a parent’s most important responsibility, and the best-suited school may be just a few miles away. 

I believe this school is a brilliant opportunity for those kids who are interested in receiving a sound education in Math, Science,

and Technology. As the school board, we work really hard to continuously improve the school, and we do this by listening to our parents. In other words, parents have an opportunity to help us provide a better education to all of our students,” Dr. Yapanel 

concluded.