“The terms are commercially confidential. Summit Point School remains a not-for-profit, and Crimson has taken on all operations of the school, including all programmes, expenses, and staff,” Crimson Academies chief executive Penelope Barton says.

Expansion planned

Summit has 40 full-time students and another 30 who come in one day a week. Its 10 staff includes four classroom teachers.

The Takapuna school will get a renovation but will stay small – a model that suits the students, many of whom have sensory issues – but Crimson will look to replicate its teaching methods for neurodivergent students at its other schools.

It’s also investigating other small schools on the Summit model, against the backdrop of limited public and private options for neurodiverse students.

Barton says while there are no single official research figures for the number of children with diverse learning needs, estimates by the Social Impact Agency and Health NZ Te Whatu Ora suggest ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) affects around 2.9% to 4% of children aged 5–14, APD (auditory processing disorder) around 6.2%, and broader high learning needs affect about 16.9%.

Summit is the second bricks-and-mortar school acquired by Crimson.

The first was the AGE School (also in Takapuna), which was bought from NZX-listed BeingAI last year in a deal that also included the online Mt Hobson Academy.

There are also around 2200 students enrolled in the online Crimson Global Academy and 571 at Crimson’s first Charter School, the online Aotearoa Infinite Academy.

Infinite dominates Charter School numbers

Barton says around five students a day are enrolling for Infinite. She expects its roll to hit 600 within a couple of weeks – its Government-set cap for this year.

Infinite is allowed to expand its roll to 900 for term one next year, with 1200 its cap for the year after that.

As of March 1 this year, there were 1471 students enrolled in 16 charter schools.

Barton said Infinite’s online model made it relatively easy to expand its roll, compared to most other charter schools.

(She could have added that the Jamie Beaton co-founded firm also dwarfs the resources of other charter contenders. Crimson – whose core business is consulting on admissions to Ivy League universities – raised $68m in a November 2024 Series D round that valued the Jamie Beaton co-founded firm at $1 billion.)

Would Crimson consider approaching the Government to make Summit a charter school?

“They’re not accepting new charters. They’re only accepting state conversions, so we won’t,” Barton says.

“But if there was an opportunity to become a charter [in future], that would be really interesting.” (Elias had an earlier charter school application rebuffed.)

Uncertainty after loss of funding

Summit Point School’s 2025 financials, filed with the Charities Register, show total income of $1.25m and total expenditure of $1.07m (down from 2024’s $1.34m as the school ran a $210,000 deficit).

Government funding for 2025 was $59,854, down from the prior year’s $80,260.

The biggest source of revenue was fees, $657,127, followed by $418,094 in grants from the Friedlander Foundation.

“We had about 30% of our role up until the end of last year provided by the Friedlander Foundation. That was for about eight years, then their funding focus shifted,” Elias said.

The withdrawal of the longstanding funding left Summit facing “uncertainty”.

Without the arrival of Crimson, “We could have managed to keep going as we are, but there would have been no opportunity for growth,” Elias said.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.