About

Discover Des Moines Prep

Des Moines Prep will serve students from 9th grade through 12th grade, starting with our first founding 9th grade class in the fall of 2025. Our students develop a strong sense of community and lifelong friendships, and their families are valued as collaborative partners.

Here’s what you’ll find at Des Moines Prep:

A Place Designed for Tomorrow’s Leaders

Students receive a challenging and empowering education that prepares them to thrive in college, career, and life. With a focus on leadership and academic excellence, we’re redefining what’s possible.

A Strategy for Success

We offer four years of personalized college and postsecondary planning, daily advisory, and a community of business partners who are ready to help all our students achieve success.

The Belief that Every Child Should be Prepared for College

Every student will graduate with at least two high-quality college acceptance letters. We equip students with the skills and confidence needed to succeed in college and beyond.

A Supportive Community

Each student has a dedicated mentor who ensures they thrive. Students and staff create a culture where every voice matters, and every learner is empowered to lead and succeed.

A Private School Experience (but the Only Cost is Commitment)

Students receive the high-quality experience of a private school —complete with top-notch facilities, student uniforms, and rigorous academics—but it’s completely free. It’s excellence without the price tag.

Mission and Vision

Too often, students are disengaged and feel their schools do little to help them gain relevant skills and experience to build fulfilling careers and lives. Not at Des Moines Prep.

We know that young people live in a rapidly changing world that requires them to learn in every situation, grow from every challenge, and tackle unsolved problems with courage and creativity. That’s why we provide our students with a strong foundation in academic excellence, career preparation, and community involvement that ensures they graduate with the skills, and a plan, to succeed.

Mission

To create an environment of excellence and joy where students develop the skills and values necessary to lead with ambition and purpose.

Vision

Fostering the next generation of visionary leaders who are best prepared to solve tomorrow’s challenges with integrity, empathy, and ambition.

Values

If you spend any time at Des Moines Prep, you’ll see that we place a lot of value in the idea that we need to connect, aspire, persevere, and achieve in everything we do. These four traits are at the core of all that we uphold and value as a school community.

Connect
We build meaningful relationships within our school community, creating an environment where collaboration and inclusivity help every individual find joy and purpose.

Aspire
We set our goals high, dream ambitiously, and continuously strive for excellence. Aspiring requires individuals to actively engage in their work – owning, investing, and driving those experiences because that’s how we improve.

Persevere
We believe learning is messy and requires both failure and persistence to be impactful. We embrace challenges as opportunities and don’t quit when circumstances require more work or innovation.

Achieve
We focus on turning our actions into tangible outcomes, ensuring that our work leads to the high standard of excellence our community deserves.

Our Team

Meet our leadership team!

Matt Lakis, Principal

Matt Lakis has more than a decade of experience and a track record of success in public education. As Principal of Woodward-Granger High School, he fostered an environment of high academic achievement, with students reporting emotional safety at nearly twice the state average and physical safety at 14% higher than the state average (2024 Conditions for Learning Survey).

Prior to Woodward-Granger, Matt worked in Des Moines Public Schools as an Associate Principal and Literacy Coach, and in Johnston Community Schools as a High School English Teacher and Teacher Leader. When he’s not serving his students and community, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and three children.

James Troupis, Chief of Schools

James is the Chief of Schools, responsible for leading the development of our growing school network. He brings over 20 years of experience in education as a teacher, instructional coach, principal, district leader, and edtech start-up founder. James was the founder and principal of Gary Comer College Prep on Chicago’s South Side; with 100% college enrollment and city-leading ACT growth, he won the Ryan Award as the nation’s top principal. He was also the Chief People Officer at Noble Schools in Chicago and co-founder of OpenSeat, an organization that helps schools provide personalized, one-to-one, social-emotional support to students.

Our Foundation

Des Moines Prep is operated by the Opportunity Education Network, a non-profit organization with a network of high-performing independent and charter schools focused on active and engaged learning. Both Des Moines Prep and the Opportunity Education Network, are supported by Opportunity Education, a non-profit foundation.

Since 2005, Opportunity Education has supported teachers with student-focused and professional learning resources. Opportunity Education’s methods and tools are used in schools around the world, helping teachers support active learning, and empowering students to develop the skills they need to succeed.

Learn more about Opportunity Education or the Opportunity Education Network.

Location

Des Moines Prep offers a world-class facility in a safe and centralized location. Our school is in the historic East Village neighborhood, blocks from the State Capitol building, at 106 E. 6th Street. Plans are already underway to convert the existing building and neighboring properties into a state-of-the-art campus that will transform how students experience a high school education.