00:00 Everyone, I hope you're well when it's like what's in changes for the 2024-2025 school year at Asternova. If you have any questions, you can reach out via Slack or, you know.
00:10 So Asternova is one of one. It is a singular school. Not based on anyone else's model, but holding a special interest or practically limited in any way, by what we're able to bring to life.
00:19 To my knowledge, the only school that started on the campus of a rocky company. And we've always thought really since the very beginning, well, what's possible in education and how might we ultimately bring into life?
00:30 So, the pretty things loose that will go on, or that our students being engaged in the big ideas, the cutting edge, the real stuff, and that they should be working on meaningful work that applies to the real world, has residents there, and feels akin to the types of work that great teams are doing everywhere
00:44 around the world. And lastly, we really care about designing a school that kids love. One where they feel at home, where they can develop their voice, make friends, and ultimately engage in the real stuff.
00:55 That's what it's really all about. So the way that we do this is we find really remarkable educators and people that work professionally to bring classes to life.
01:03 And those classes tend to be a mix of these things. Some of really intensive they go really deep into the subject matter.
01:08 Others are more exploratory or experimental classes that you would not find anywhere else. Some are foundational building those essential skills and there are others that are more collaborative.
01:16 Classes that help kids will not have to make any seem their own better. So today we've had this part-time full-time divide.
01:24 And the challenge is then that this part-time program where we have all these kids coming from all over the world is that there really has only been eight blocks that we've made available.
01:32 And the reason is kind of go back to the beginning of the school, but basically it started in our transition from Ad Astra.
01:38 It's basic to Astra Nova, which was online. And we started with Fridays, then added these kind of Tuesday Thursday blocks, but really the whole system really needs to be rethought.
01:46 And so that's what we've done, and I want to share that with you. So to go from these eight blocks that we offer in this current year, we really thought about like what other opportunities there could be for students who are only going to be with us for a few hours a week.
01:58 And rather than the 20 hours that we have for our full-time students currently, we thought like one sort of easy missed opportunity was to bring our part-time students more into those block ones through block four.
02:10 So how this will look is that part-time students have the ability to take classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for block one and for Tuesdays Thursdays for block four, as well as opening up a new block that all students could take block zeroes on Fridays.
02:24 So given the time zones which really we have kids from all over the world, it felt important that you could get some continuity on Tuesday mornings or Thursday mornings or continuity on Tuesday afternoons or Thursday afternoons or taking two classes in a row.
02:35 So that's the first change is moving from eight blocks available to part-time students up to 13. And then the second big change is acknowledging that there is this gap.
02:45 We have students that are really only available for a few hours a week because they're in full time and in the person's school or because they've got a lot of other things going on.
02:53 And then we have these students that are part of the full-time program that come, you know, 20 hours a week, it's a comprehensive sort of all-in experience, but there's this gap in the middle of kids that are highly engaged in Astra Nova, are flourishing in their classes, but are wanting to do more than
03:07 we've allowed them to do. So in my mind, the goal of where we're heading with the full-time program is to acknowledge that when we say full-time, what we're really meeting is students that are showing commitment to Astra Nova, and I think less than the hour of requirement is good for everyone.
03:23 It allows more flexibility for families and it also allows us to get a density of our most committed kids that's to be working together and ideally to be sharing time together in person.
03:32 So we call this thing flagship. So we're getting rid of the idea of full time and basically your part-time student or your enrolled in our flagship program.
03:40 And what that does is it's a program that kind of gets back to the essence of what Ad Astra was and what Astra Nova has always been, which is as really experimental school that could report to the boundaries and really cares about challenging work that has meaning in the world.
03:54 So the importance of flagship is, of course, to increase the density of kids and their connections to one another. It's an opportunity for more intensive courses that need multiple times a week so that they can go deeper.
04:03 It gives our family flexibility to choose the blocks to fit your schedule. And ultimately, as I mentioned, it gives us the opportunity to get everyone together in Southern California a couple times a year to meet each other and to form some friendships that can only be solidified over the coming amongst
04:17 online. So let's start with eligibility. In order to be part of the flagship program, we need you to be available for either block one or block four, and those classes are going to be Monday through Thursday.
04:29 So if you're not available for those blocks, you need to work your time zone or your other commitments, it's just not going to work for this next year.
04:35 No problem, just that first piece of eligibility is absolutely a requirement. The second one is that I know rates are silly, you know, they're like, well, what is 7th grade really?
04:44 But ideally, you're thinking of your job as entering the either 7th, 8th or even 9th grade. Those are the sweet spots in terms of the age you want to serve, your child's going to sixth grade.
04:52 This program is not for them next year, but maybe the year after. The third thing is that for those in the flagship program, to really get the most of the experience that we need you to commit to 10 or more blocks for the year, most will commit to far more than 10, but 10 I think is the absolute minimum
05:06 to be part of the program. And lastly, I think there's probably going to be some little acceptance piece, so if you've been an astronaut of the student, we have had your child in class, we want to check with the teachers to make sure that they're thriving.
05:17 If you are a new student, I think there's probably an additional step of an interview, but really want to make sure that the flagship program not only works for your family, but we are realistic about the expectations, because the goal here is really to push the envelope, and we can't do that if your
05:29 child just simply doesn't have the time to do it, or your family's not setting up in a way that's going to allow it to be a success.
05:35 So let's just talk about how this will work. So flagship one means that your child is a flagship student, which means they're committed to doing 10 hours, they are entering 7th or 9th grade, and they're committed to those blocks.
05:49 So starting with these sort of force core blocks, they're going to take in block one. That's a flagship cohort. So they're going to take that with a group of kids.
05:57 Why? Well, because when you have a class with a common group of kids, you have an opportunity to really form deep connections with the students.
06:05 So this flagship block for block one, you would pick those four blocks, and then any additional blocks that you want to add among all of these options.
06:12 The blocks in red are only for flagship students. The blocks in purple are open to a part-time and flagship students.
06:18 The blocks in green are available only for flagship students, and that is math. So if you want to do math, the rest of your NOVA, you're now welcome to do that.
06:24 So Dr. Rose teaches algebra one, Dr. Jamie teaches geometry, and the rest of our math is through art of problem.
06:29 all of them. We have live teachers teaching us classes with astronomical students. Okay, the alternative here would be flagship four.
06:35 So let's say you're available for block four. So you'll do your flagship cohort blocks there. And then again, if your flagship student picked 10 or more blocks among these options, and it really kind of works the same way.
06:46 The goal here again would be that Tuesday Thursday classes in block one are going to be meeting twice a week.
06:51 So that would be the same class here and here. Whereas these other classes will just be meeting one hour per week.
06:57 Okay, so how does this look overall? So let's say that you're a part-time student. You're going to enroll in some number of hours.
07:03 The maximum you could do would be 13. There's a number of part-time blocks. Anywhere you see that per-polition blue color, those are blocks that are available to you.
07:10 So block 0, 1, 4, and 5 on Tuesdays, block 0, 1, 4, and 5 on Thursdays, and block 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on Fridays.
07:21 If you are a flagship student and you meet the eligibility criteria and we think that you be great fit for the program and it makes sense for your family, then you will pick either flagship one or flagship four meaning that that's when your flagship cohort block will be held and then you're picking it
07:35 at least at additional six blocks but in likely many more than that to round out your more comprehensive experience. So another thing I'll add about the flagship cohort is that Dr.
07:45 Rose, Tara and myself, as the founders of Astra Nova and as the teachers that created Ad Astra on the campus and SpaceX.
07:53 We are really going to be teaching across all of these blocks, but really we have strong opinions as to what those yellow blocks will look like.
08:00 Because we think of it as a flagship as like we only had one year to work with your child. We feel like these are sort of the quintessential experiences that your child must have to really get the most out of Astra Nova.
08:11 It's not that the other classes aren't remarkable, they absolutely are, but the yellow blocks are ones that are going to be more highly opinionated require lots of work and they're going to be intensive but ultimately fulfilling experiences.
08:21 So I just want to make a quick note on that. All right. So tuition, the simplify things, it's just going to be $2,100 per block per year.
08:30 So minimum of two blocks. So the most part time you can be is that you just pick two blocks we're going to join us.
08:37 And so you can just do the multiplication two times 2100 is what your tuition will be. As always we meet 100% of demonstrate is financially for all students and then for maximum tuition for students in the flagship program would be 16 blocks which is basically the same tuition for full-time as it is 
08:51 now and if you want to do more than 16 blocks you're welcome to do so there's no additional fee. So again flagship is 10 blocks or more pending acceptance and eligibility and then you can choose number of blocks you're going to take as long as you commit to those blocks for the year.
09:04 It's usually no problem to add more blocks if you start before and I'm actually going to do six there problem but we do ask you commit to a minimum number of blocks so we can get all this classes scheduled and have a sense of what the liquidity will be for each block, which then determines how many classes
09:17 are available. Just to give you a quick sense, kind of going back to the schedule. For this year on Friday's Block 1 through 4, we have something like 12 options for each class.
09:26 The goal is to make it agonizing to choose classes because there's so many good options out there. In terms of the Tuesday, Thursday, Block 0 and 5, there's tend to be more like 3 or 4 options.
09:36 And then during the flagship program, I would kind of imagine somewhere between maybe 4 and 5 options per block. So, Astrinova, I don't know if you say this is just lunacy or just ambition, but we offer something like 150 meat courses a year, and we have 250 students.
09:52 So we're always designing new courses, always bringing in new experiences, and really our goal is to fill each of these blocks with compelling opportunities for your jobs to get advantage of them.
10:01 All right, so that's really it. Our focus here at Astrinova is to keep experimenting, and to happily share our work with world.
10:09 We are so delighted to work with your kids and we're so grateful for the support that you've given to the school.
10:13 Do you have any questions reach out? Of course, there'll be more details in writing that you can look at as you consider how to enroll for next year or to enroll for the first time.
10:21 And we'll look forward to any feedback in questions and otherwise take care and have an awesome day. Thanks everyone.