Our monetization will come from sponsors - we currently do not intend to charge our students.

Knowing our target demographic, we know their in school the majority of the day. We know their busy and may or may not be in front of a computer. We feel having a strong mobile presence will allow them to interact with the website more consistantly and more frequently. I want both mobile and native because I want our students to have the best possible experience. As I'm the sole programmer, I can handle the mobile and iOS native apps myself. I can't handle an (multiple) Android version or even Windows mobile and gasp... Blackberry. As I know the majority of my users are iOS users, they'll get the best experience in a native app. Everyone else - I hope the mobile version is just as good...

The native app is to improve reach and connection. A feature of the native app will be a push notification to notify students when other students need help. Think of it like your question here. You needed help / had a question to ask of your peers; but the only people that saw it are the people that clicked on the link to view your question. If other people got a notification that a question was raised on a topic they care about, your question would have a better chance of getting answered and you'd have a better chance of getting the help you needed.