Students at Aspen Academy get a taste of entrepreneurship early.
At age 5, they participate in class businesses. In the seventh grade, they take over the school’s student-managed businesses, which include food service and a school store. And in eighth grade, they’re paired with an entrepreneurial mentor to help them create their own business.
“By the time you’re in kindergarten, you’re actually participating in a full miniature economy, which is pretty cool,” according to Head of School Kristina Scala.
Scala is an entrepreneur herself. She founded the school in 2005 with Lynda Sailor and a group of interested families.
And earlier this month, they undertook a common business practice — a sale.
The private school offering pre-K through middle school was acquired last month by International Schools Partnership, a London, England-based firm with 120 schools from Athens, Greece, to Bangkok, Thailand, to Panama City, Panama.
ISP is paying up to $39 million, Scala said — a couple million of which is pending based on performance. The deal includes the school’s real estate at University Boulevard and Orchard Road in Greenwood Village.
Scala said the school name will remain the same, and it will be able to make decisions independently.
“Aspen Academy will still be Aspen,” she said. “Everything that makes Aspen Academy special, that continues.
“We just now have this amazing resource behind us that allows for really significant investment in learning sciences, in programs for the kids, in opportunities for the future.”
The school has nearly 500 students. Tuition is $26,000 a year for most grades, with financial aid available. In the 2024-2025 school year, revenue was $13.1 million and expenses were $11.9 million, according to tax filings.
The school had $19.7 million in net assets as of June 30, 2025. At the time, Scala was paid $500,000 annually.
Aspen Academy has been a nonprofit. But ISP is a for-profit, private equity-backed firm.
Because of that, Scala said, the $39 million will go to The Aspen Endowment, a newly formed nonprofit that will offer scholarships and education innovation grants, not just at Aspen.
“The endowment will amplify Aspen Academy and students across the state of Colorado,” she said.
Scala said that Aspen Academy chooses “the highest curriculum available worldwide.”
“For example, Singapore has the highest performing math students. We bring Singapore mathematics curriculum here,” she said.
Beyond the standard courses is a philosophy that the school calls its LiFE curriculum, which stands for leadership, finance and entrepreneurship.
“We want them to see themselves as creative beings that can build,” she said.
The entrepreneurship component is inspired by Scala’s time at California State University, Chico, where she was student body president and head of the Associated Students, a student-led organization that operates many on-campus businesses.
“They love being engaged with what’s real,” she said of Aspen students, “and they have a very good nose for what doesn’t actually matter.”
Aspen has been “super successful,” Scala said. That means she’s been approached by numerous individuals, organizations and investors wanting to be involved. She’s been told she should franchise.
“I always felt that was a regression to the mean,” she said.
ISP started talking to her four years ago after a conference, Scala said. That firm had been working on something similar to the LiFE curriculum.
The school’s board voted in May 2025 to engage in talks about a possible sale.
“As Lynda and I considered this, our fiduciary was, how do we future-proof this school — its mission, its values and its people. How do we build this to last?” she said.
ISP has 19 other schools in the U.S., although Aspen Academy is the first in Colorado. Scala expects the company’s global footprint to open new worlds for her students.
“They will be able to have cultural exchanges, virtual exchanges, true human experiences — ISP runs its own Model UN where kids are flying in from all over the world,” she said.
Families that move abroad, she added, may be able to find an ISP school in their new city.
“We feel like it’s going to also support the families,” she said.
