ourschoolboard.org Find my school

School overview

Prospect Hill Academy Charter School

How Prospect Hill Academy is funded, governed, and run across its four campuses

How is Prospect Hill Academy funded?

Tuition follows each enrolled student from their home town

PHA is a tuition-free public charter school, but no single town pays for it directly. Massachusetts requires each student's home school district to send a per-pupil tuition payment to PHA, funded through the state's charter school formula. That means PHA's budget rises and falls with enrollment, and with which towns its students come from, since reimbursement rates differ by sending district. About 95% of PHA's operating revenue comes from these public tuition payments; the rest is fees, donations, and investment income.

Tuition follows the student

Cambridge and Somerville are PHA's largest sending communities, though their combined share of the student body has fallen from 56% in 2014-15 to about 37% in 2025-26 as PHA has drawn more students from towns such as Revere, Watertown, Woburn, and Waltham.

FY2025 ran a planned deficit

Tuition revenue of $22.4 million against $25.4 million in operating expenses left a net operating deficit of about $985,000, narrowed to roughly $327,000 after investment gains — smaller than the board had budgeted for.

No bank debt, funded by reserves

PHA held about $18.5 million in investments and $3.1 million in cash as of June 30, 2025, and is drawing down reserves for planned deficits rather than borrowing.

Governed by an appointed Board of Trustees

PHA's sitting board recruits, interviews, and votes to approve its own new members; there is no public election for trustee seats. As of April 2026 the board was in the middle of a recruitment cycle to replace about five outgoing members, targeting roughly 11 trustees total.

A planned deficit funded from investment reserves is a deliberate, board-approved strategy, not a sign of financial distress — PHA carries no debt and has consistently run smaller deficits than it budgeted for.

Where the school stands

Enrollmentverified
864 students

As reported April 14, 2026, down from about 890 students at the start of the 2025-26 school year, tied in part to transportation-related withdrawals.

FY2025 net operating deficitverified
985,000 $

Narrows to about $327,000 after investment gains on the school's portfolio; smaller than the deficit the board had budgeted for.

Total operating spending per student (FY2025)context
~29,000 $/student

Context: calculated by dividing FY2025 total operating expenses ($25.4 million) by roughly 875 students enrolled at year end. As a single-site charter, this figure already covers facilities, benefits, and administration, unlike a within-district per-school allocation, which typically excludes those costs.

Students identified as English learnersverified
22 % of students

Up from about 11% in 2018, roughly doubling over eight years, per a February 2026 presentation to the board. A state review of PHA's ESL programs gave largely positive initial feedback.

Chartered enrollment capverified
1,200 students, PreK-12

PHA cannot admit more students than this without a charter amendment; admission is by lottery, with preference for Somerville, Cambridge, Revere, Woburn, Watertown, and Waltham residents and siblings.

Board of Trustees minutes published in the trailing 12 monthsverified
4 meetings

PHA's minutes archive follows a roughly bimonthly full-board meeting cadence (October, December, February, April); committee-level financial and academic updates occur more often between full-board meetings.

Major projects

New graduation Competency Determination Policy

adopted, phasing in

The board adopted PHA's own graduation coursework and mastery requirements after MCAS stopped being the state's sole graduation test.

Next: The new U.S. history coursework requirement phases in starting with the class of 2027.
  1. Board adopts PHA's Competency Determination Policy, replacing MCAS as the graduation requirement

Funding

Not applicable (policy adoption, no direct cost)

Charter renewal compliance plan

in progress

PHA's charter was renewed for five years with new state conditions on enrollment demographics that the school must formally address.

Next: PHA is required to submit a plan addressing enrollment-demographics conditions across the towns the charter serves.
  1. Board reports a successful five-year charter renewal with new state conditions on enrollment demographics

Funding

Not applicable (state compliance requirement)

Administrative office space and facilities assessment

unfunded, under consideration

The district is exiting its administrative office lease and assessing building conditions across its four campuses, with no final plan yet.

Next: District is seeking alternative office space and completing a broader facilities condition assessment; no final plan reported yet.
  1. Board reports the 366 Somerville Ave administrative lease is secured only through June 2026 and not viable on a month-to-month basis

Funding

Operating budget

Built from Prospect Hill Academy's four most recent Board of Trustees meeting minutes (October 2025-April 2026), its FY2025 annual report, its 2025 MCAS report card family letter, and its currently posted policies, plans, and handbooks, all collected directly from the school's official website.

Get alerts for Prospect Hill Academy Charter School

We read every agenda, packet, and set of minutes, and write up the decisions that affect families — each one linked to the document it came from.

View alerts for this district