Teachers Gone BAD Comedy Fundraiser

In less than three years, Nerd Academy has grown from an idea around our kitchen table to a school launched inside extra space at the YMCA. Now, as we prepare to enter our third year, we are taking the next major step by moving into a building of our own.

But opening a new school building takes more than signing a lease and moving in furniture. It requires renovations, classroom materials, technology, and the supplies students need from the moment they walk through the doors.

At Nerd Academy, tuition is built around a simple promise: families should know what to expect. We provide school supplies, cover technology and tech fees, and include each student’s first five school shirts. We do not believe in constantly asking parents for more or adding surprise costs throughout the year.

That same philosophy shaped this fundraiser. Teachers Gone Bad was organized by our board without placing any fundraising requirement on Nerd Academy families. Proceeds will help cover renovations to our new building and provide school supplies for the upcoming school year.

Today, Nerd Academy is supported through tuition, board-led fundraising, donations, and personal contributions from the founders. Our long-term goal is for tuition to fully sustain daily school operations, so future fundraising can be directed toward buying or building a permanent Nerd Academy campus.

Our relationship with education is personal.

Before we opened Nerd Academy, we were parents trying to protect our own children. Our daughters experienced bullying from students, harmful treatment from adults, and situations that were minimized or swept aside by the people responsible for addressing them. Those experiences changed the way we looked at schools and helped shape the kind of school we believed families deserved.

Now that we run Nerd Academy, we see education from the other side as well. We understand the pressure teachers carry, the responsibility administrators face, the concerns parents bring through the door, and the complex needs of students. Schools are made up of people, and people are navigating difficult situations that rarely fit into simple categories.

That does not mean accountability should disappear. It means we understand the system from several perspectives. Teachers are expected to manage changing standards, administrative demands, parent concerns, student behavior, and problems far beyond the classroom. Sometimes they need a night to step away from the pressure, let their hair down, and laugh at the moments they cannot always talk about during the school day.

That is why Teachers Gone Bad felt like the right fundraiser for Nerd Academy. It is honest, unfiltered, and willing to laugh at the complicated reality of education without pretending the work is easy.