Due in part to the success of Animo Leadership Charter High School, Ánimo Venice Charter High School was established as the fifth Green Dot school. It opened in August 2002 with 145 students, adding a freshman class of 140 every year until 2006, when it reached its full capacity of approximately 525 students.
Classes began in fall 2004 in a sectioned-off portion of the playground of Broadway Elementary School in Venice. The school moved in 2006 to the former Ninety-Eighth Street Elementary School campus in Los Angeles, which had mostly recently[when?] been occupied by Renaissance Academy.
Curriculum
Freshmen are admitted through a lottery process; about 145 applicants to the school are accepted, and the remainder are placed on a waiting list.