Best Practices for Charter School Expansion | AZ Business Summit

Copyright © 2017 School Capital, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Charter

Best Practices

for Charter

School

Expansion

Thursday,

November 16

2Copyright © 2017 Charter School Capital, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WELCOME

Mike Robinson

Client Services

Representative

Charter School Capital

Megan Olson

Co-Founder

The Odyssey Preparatory

Academy Family of Schools


SCHOOL BACKGROUND

• Opened doors in a strip mall with 400 scholars K-6 in 2009-2010.

• Opened first permanent campus in 2010-2011 with 650 scholars.

• Opened second campus 10 miles east of the first campus with an additional

650 scholars in 2011-2012.

• Opened the Junior High and High School directly between the two campuses

in 2012-2013 with grades 6-9.

• Opened final k-5 campus in 2016-2017 directly north of the high school.

• All three elementary campuses feed into the 6-12 Junior High/High school.

• To date, the Odyssey family of schools has roughly 3100 scholars enrolled

with an internal growth plan for 3800 total.

The Odyssey Preparatory Family of Schools


WHAT WE’LL COVER

• Charter school growth stages

• Challenges school operators face at each stage

• Best practices and takeaways

Agenda

Email [email protected]

and we’ll email you the slides

Copyright © 2017 Charter School Capital, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Stages of Growth


STAGES OF GROWTH

# of

Students

Start-up

Survival/Establish

Growth

Flexibility/Stability

Sustainable Maturity

Efficiency

Time

(years)

0 2-3 5-10

100%

Students as

a % of

mature

targets

10-25% 25-90% 90-100%


CHALLENGES

Reasons for charter school closures

42%

24%

19%

6%

5% 4%

Financial

Mismanagement

Academic

Authorizer Obstacles

Facilities

Other

Source: The State of Charter Schools,

The Center For Education Reform, December 2011


STAGES OF GROWTH

Strategic approach

Start-up Growth Sustainability

Financing

Facilities

Community

involvement

Academic

accountability

Operational

support


STAGES OF GROWTH

Strategic approach


Financing Any liquidity

Facilities In target locale

Community

involvement

Awareness

Academic

accountability

Establish program

Operational

support

Outside experts


STAGES OF GROWTH

Strategic approach


Financing Any liquidity Flexible/scalable

Facilities In target locale Modular

Community

involvement

Awareness Fulfill the promise

Academic

accountability

Establish program Measure program

Operational

support

Outside experts Transitional

resources


STAGES OF GROWTH

Strategic approach


Financing Any liquidity Flexible/scalable Cost

Facilities In target locale Modular Curb appeal/cost

Community

involvement

Awareness Fulfill the promise Fabric of

community

Academic

accountability

Establish program Measure program Continuous

improvement

Operational

support


resources

In-house team


STAGES OF GROWTH

Strategic approach


Financing Any liquidity Flexible/scalable Cost


Community

involvement


community

Academic

accountability


improvement

Operational

support


resources

In-house team


STAGES OF GROWTH

• Different structures of working capital

– Receivable sale

– Term loan

– Line of credit

• Facilities financing options

– Lease option

– Bond

– Traditional bank loan

• Regarding costs of funds, all costs are NOT created equal

– Evaluate total $ cost rather than % rate

– Consider fixed transactional costs and penalties, in addition to annual rate related to costs

Finance considerations


GROWTH ESTIMATOR


The Start-up Phase


STAGES OF GROWTH

Start-up

Common Misperceptions

Founding team to “create” best practices

“If you build it, they will come.”

Strong Educational Program is only one component


STAGES OF GROWTH

Start-up

The Challenges

Finding good leadership and teachers

Securing resources

Finding suitable facilities

Healthy enrollment

Sustaining high performance as network expands


STAGES OF GROWTH

Start-up

Best Practices

Study and meet with schools doing things well

Don’t be a master of everything. Master a few things and do them really

well

Build genuine and robust relationship with teachers, leaders, vendors, and

external constituents

Pay close attention to the budget

Pay even closer attention to student progress data

Do not waiver in your belief or mission


The Growth Phase


STAGES OF GROWTH

Growth


“After the 3rd year, all will be in place and it’s smooth sailing!”

Performance and accountability requirements will be stagnant

Done with professional development

No need to change routines or systems

We’ll have sufficient funds from operating revenue to support expansion

Facility upgrades will be minimal, if at all


STAGES OF GROWTH

Growth

Challenges

Maintaining high expectations and being flexible

Maintaining your culture as you expand

Retaining quality teachers and leaders

Advancing levels of student performance

Upgrading systems to support growth

Matching capital to operational needs


STAGES OF GROWTH

Growth

Best Practices

Build on the culture

Continuous professional development and leadership training

Focus on individualized instruction and data analysis

Develop systems for your operations to maintain consistency and

efficiency

23


The Sustainable Maturity Phase


STAGES OF GROWTH

Sustainable maturity


The hard work is behind us

Time to cash in

Challenges decrease as you scale


STAGES OF GROWTH


The Challenges

Focus, Engage, Act

Right team on the right bus in the right seats

Recalibration


STAGES OF GROWTH


Best Practices

Strategic enrollment = Stable performance

Develop data-driven culture and retain the passion that got you started

Celebrate your successes and analyze your failures as strategic opportunities

Develop pillars that define what you do – core strategies for your “preferred future”

Assess all management systems regularly and use assessment to improve


Recap


STAGES OF GROWTH

Recap


Financing Any liquidity Flexibility/scalabil

ity

Cost


Community

involvement


community

Academic

accountability


improvement

Operational

support


resources

In-house team


STAGES OF GROWTH

• Stages in charter school lifecycle present very different challenges

• Strategy and focus needs to vary significantly as you grow

• Leverage experts at every stage to allow you to focus on educating kids

• Financial analysis illuminates positive potential impact of growth and scale

Key takeaways


Questions?Presentation available by emailing

[email protected]


Thank You

Presentation available by emailing

[email protected]

Mike Robinson

[email protected]

602-777-1251

Megan Olsen

[email protected]

602-663-2516

Date post:	28-Jan-2018
Category:	Economy & Finance
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Best Practices for Charter School Expansion | AZ Business Summit

Economy & Finance