Recent changes and additions to our facility financing solutions strengthen and widen our role in supporting charter schools.
Traditionally, the options available to charter school leaders procuring, maintaining, and, hopefully, coming to own their school building have been a balance of tradeoffs between stability, flexibility, and cost. A long-term lease, for example, offers stability but takes away flexibility. To a large extent, we’ve all resigned ourselves to this tug of war between compromises.
Having served as an investment partner, a lender, and an asset manager, charter schools can trust Charter School Capital (CSC) to help with their real estate challenges. In fact, over the past nearly-14 years, we’ve helped 40 schools secure school facilities.
Our partnerships with Citibank and other key investors, along with organizations in the philanthropic sector, have substantially impacted this narrative. All of this leads to more and better choices.
In our recent webinar, Tommy Alberini and Mike Robinson delve into this landscape, explore the various tensions between cost and opportunity, and unfold our new strengths.
The webinar dives deep into the advantages and disadvantages of a self-issued Bond, comparing it and contrasting in terms of long-term and short-term benefits to other financing alternatives, including CSC’s lease-back approach.
However, one of our biggest new strengths is the no-cost Bond option, detailed in the webinar. This option affords schools long-term benefits similar to a self-issued Bond, avoiding the heavy toll of needing large reserves and paying hefty fees.
We encourage you to watch the full webinar and gain new insights into an essential aspect of school leadership. And, of course, reach out to us to discuss the best approach for your school.
Our panel of judges received so many amazing entries this year, competition was fierce, and the selection process was quite challenging. It’s heartwarming to see how many people wrote in, telling us stories of teachers who made a decisive impact in their lives.
After much deliberation, our panel chose the stories they deemed most moving.
The winners of the 2020 Dewey Awards are:
Sarah Ward – honoring Mr. Heroux
Dr. Cecil W. Payton – a tribute to Mrs. Katie Pugh Smith
Dr. Mechelle Newell – Mr. Porter, the most special teacher (video)
The authors of these stories will be awarded a $1,000 charter school grant each, to go to the charter school of their choice.
We’re featuring all three stories below. In upcoming weeks, we’ll be posting many other stories sent to us during this contest. Stay tuned!
Mr. Heroux
Story by Sarah Ward
My sophomore year was the first year that I participated with my school orchestra in the annual MPA, music performance assessment, held by our district. The orchestra had been steadily rehearsing and perfecting our repertoire for weeks under the direction of our conductor, Mr. Heroux. Our small charter school orchestra was quite the underdog group, having never received straight superiors, the highest score from all of the judges, at one of these events. This year, however, was different: we were thoroughly prepared and determined to impress our talent upon the judges.
When the day arrived, every student was a bundle of nerves and excitement. Mr. Heroux consistently fed us words of encouragement throughout the day, keeping us focused on the task ahead. The performance came and went, and the stress of our scores was pressing upon us. We knew we had given a spectacular performance by the look on Mr. Heroux’s face after we walked off the stage. Performance scores were given to the directors to share with us, so the anxiety of our small ensemble was palpable in the band room the next morning.
“First of all,” I recall Mr. Heroux saying, “you all did an incredible job yesterday.” From his tone of voice, I could tell that something was amiss. I looked up and saw tears glistening in his eyes as his voice cracked. At that moment, everyone could tell that he had bitter news to share with us. Then he told us: we did not get straight superiors. He went through each of the judges’ score sheets. Two out of the three judges had given us superior ratings, but one judge only gave us an excellent, the rating below superior.
To make matters worse, Mr. Heroux told us that he had examined the point brackets, and he sadly reported that the excellent was one singular point away from a superior. I was shocked, heartbroken, and angry. We had failed to achieve the top score by one point. I looked around the room and could see other members of the orchestra equally affected by the news, especially the seniors who had worked four years for this moment.
Even when he thought that there was nothing he could say to make us feel better, Mr. Heroux demonstrated his care for us that day. He recalled us how we had worked incredibly hard and had done so well on stage the previous day. Even though we were nervous, we did not let our nerves get the best of us. When we made a mistake, we kept going. He reminded us that we had played our hearts out on that stage, and regardless of the score, we stood out as one of the most united ensembles at the event. He told us that he knew we were disappointed, and he was not going to lie to us. He was disappointed as well, but he was also proud.
Through his tears, he told us just how proud he was of our accomplishments. As an ensemble, we had been through a lot that year, but we never failed to pull through and make him proud. He helped us see that this instance was no exception. He was so incredibly proud that we were able to work together and produce beautiful music, regardless of the scores we received. One by one, many of the members of the orchestra vocally expressed their agreement with Mr. Heroux. I remember a specific instance when the principal violist shared his gratitude on how his section was always there to back him up on parts he felt that he did not completely know.
After we were finished sharing, Mr. Heroux stood at the front of the room with a teary smile on his face, and at that moment, we were all satisfied and knew we would not have been the ensemble we were without his guidance.
I do not think that there was a dry pair of eyes that morning when the orchestra students left the room. Mr. Heroux had shown us that sometimes we have to look past something such as a score or a rating to see what is truly important. No, we did not receive our desired straight superiors, but we came together as one body of students and gave the performance our all. We showed our strength, not necessarily in numbers or experience, but by the will of our resolve and determination to put on our best performance. We could not have done this, however, if it was not for Mr. Heroux. He is not just a teacher at my charter school, he is a mentor and leader who cares immensely about his students.
I cannot count the times when he has encouraged me when I felt as if I was not a good enough musician to succeed in my life. He inspires every student he comes in contact with to put their best self forward and never give up on themselves, even when a setback occurs. His lessons are full of wisdom and never fail to assist students in their day to day lives, such as the one he imparted upon us that day in my sophomore year. When I am older and reflect upon my high school career, I will always see Mr. Heroux as the noble and caring person who I aspire to be.
Mr. Porter – The Most Special Teacher
Story by Dr. Mechele Newell
Hello, I’m Dr. Newell and I am super-excited about your proposal to share a story of inspiration because I am nothing but a person who comes from stories of inspiration. So I want to share a story about the most special teacher I have ever had. And his name was Mr. Porter. He taught at John F. Kennedy High School in Cleveland, Ohio, the inner city. Okay, I’m talking about the inner city and I transferred to that school my junior year, I believe. And I was put in an Algebra 2 with Trigonometry Course and everyone told me, “Mr. Porter is the worst. Mechele, he’s going to require so much of you.” And so I thought, “I don’t really want to be in this class.”
I mean, I am in an inner-city school where no one cares about what these kids are doing. Why do you care so much, right? But let me just give you a glimpse of Mr. Porter. Mr. Porter was a black man probably in his forties, I’m thinking, maybe late forties. Now that I’m an adult, right? He wore a blue button-down cardigan, pretty much similar to the look of Mr. Rogers from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He did not really mix and mingle with the students but he knew everything about you. He had this way of having enough information about you to literally scare you. He never yelled. He never raised his voice. You never saw him physically do anything harmful to students.
But in a school where we had some really rough students, everyone feared Mr. Porter. First of all, you’re in a school where not many of the educators in that school thought much of the students, all right? And on top of all of that, you have this course that is considered to be a college prep course. And you have a bunch of black and brown students in the class that we feel like we’re kind of elite, right? Because look around, right? Look at where you are and look at us. We’re sitting in this class, so we are already the elite group. So we kind of demanded some respect, if you will. Just based on that alone, well, Mr. Porter wasn’t one of those men.
He felt like all of the students at that school should be able to perform at this level. And this level was not the level most teachers expected from the students. And so just to give you an example, when you started in his class, he would tell you, “No one will leave my class with a grade lower than a B.” And so you’re excited, this guy is going to be great. He’s going to give us points. It’s going to give us extra credit. And that was not the case at all. Mr. Porter demanded that every time you were awake, walking anywhere, that you would have his Algebra 2 with Trigonometry book on your person.
And if he did not see you walking around with that book, he would deduct points. And then you’d have to earn them back by doing some extra work. And you already didn’t want to do the work that you had. So I don’t even know why we thought this was something he could do. But if he saw you at the mall, seriously, if he saw you at Burger King, which was across the street, you had better had that textbook on you. We all feared Mr. Porter but not because he was mean, not because he was hateful, not because he said disparaging things, but because he had this level of expectation that just did not fit in our environment, it just didn’t.
Nobody expected anything of us but for him to expect everybody to earn B’s, all right or greater, right, higher grades? And to expect to see kids that most folks called, knuckleheads, good-for-nothings, to expect to see us anywhere we could walk, right? To have our books with us, that was just, that was scary, yet he earned our respect. And I will honestly say that anything and everything that I know about math right now is because of that man. Now this was an Algebra 2 with Trigonometry Course, you would have thought, right? That I had picked up some of my math, my love for math or my skill in math at an earlier age.
But everything that I learned from him solidified whatever I had been taught before. And normally you would look for a strong foundation of math and then you would grow on top of that. But it happened in a backward way for me. And most of the kids in our class, being in a district where … You can look up the Cleveland Public or Cleveland Municipal School District, that school district remember had a good reputation, all right? Especially when it came to dealing with students who look like me. And so our foundation was not sturdy, it was not strong at all. Yet we were still matriculating and still being pushed through the system.
And so to end up in a class with a man who loved math as much as he did, he wasn’t even excited when he taught it. He just taught it with such ownership, that you knew that he knew what he was talking about and you really wanted to know, as well. He made you believe that you could do it. He did not ever offer you a way out. It was always, this is what you’re going to do because I said, “You can do it.” I say that he inspired me the most because I find myself having that same passion for my students’ learning. And I find myself telling them, “Look at me. You can do this because I said you can do it. Not because I’m the boss of you but because I see it in you.
And because I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure you have the tools that you need to master this skill.” His impact, it didn’t just have an influence on me while I was in his school or in his class, but it has had an influence and an impact on everything that I have touched since knowing him. I realize that I can do all things, that there is nothing outside of my reach. That just because other people may not feel I have an ability to do something, that does not make it true, it does not make it so.
And so that’s why I choose Mr. Porter. Even after leaving that school, my family had to move to another area and I had to leave John F. Kennedy High School. I wound up going to a school called Garfield Heights High School in the Greater Cleveland area but it’s actually a suburb. And that was my senior year. And when I got there, the guidance counselor told me that I should just go to junior college. She laughed at me when I told her I wanted to go to Notre Dame College of Ohio, which is a women’s college. She laughed so hard. She literally fell over in her chair. She said, “You’ll never make it in a four-year.”
And I honestly believe what made me push past all of that, was what had been instilled in me by Mr. Porter in that math class that I had taken just the year prior. I had him for the entire year. He was an amazing, amazing teacher. But most importantly, he sowed seeds of hope. And having that experience after I transferred out and being able to, now as an adult, reflect on all that I went through academically from my childhood through adulthood and now they call me doctor, I can’t help but recognize him for his influence and his inspiration. So that’s my story. That’s my story. Thank you so much just for allowing us this opportunity to reflect on what good teaching or what good leadership or what good solid inspiration looks like in the classroom.
In Loving Memory of and Tribute to Mrs. Katie Pugh Smith
Story by Dr. Cecil W. Payton
As young African American males growing up in the ’50s and ’60s in the tiny segregated town of Orangeburg, South Carolina, African American students naturally were relegated to attending segregated schools based on skin color.
Katie P. Smith
I remember well how we were bussed past the all-white schools to the all-Black schools that were not nearly as well equipped. That did not, however, deter us from seeking the best education that we could get. Although our schools were not as well equipped, we had some of the best, highly qualified black teachers who really cared about their students and went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that we were fully prepared for the next chapter in our lives.
One such teacher was the late Mrs. Katie P. Smith, a loving and caring teacher who had such a profound effect on my life. She and her husband, Hampton D. Smith were both educators, he a professor at Claflin College (now university), and she an elementary/middle school teacher in the Orangeburg County Public School System. In addition, their home was on the same street as my family’s, only about a half-mile apart. I remember vividly how they would wave in their car as they passed by our home every day on the way to work. I was fortunate enough to have had Mrs. Smith as my sixth and seventh-grade teacher.
Initially, she was supposed to only have been my sixth-grade teacher, but she was so impressed with our class that she asked to move up one grade so that she could be our seventh-grade teacher also. Of course, we were delighted because she was such a wonderful teacher who always encouraged us to do our best. She truly believed that we could be anything that we wanted to be and would always find something extra for us to learn.
One of the things that endeared me so much to her was the time when I was the only student in a class of about 30 students who spelled all 100 of the words correctly on a spelling test. She was so proud of me that she had me stand in front of the class as she shared my test result. The excitement and enthusiasm in her voice were so exhilarating to me that I still remember the moment as if it were only yesterday. That moment instilled in me the confidence that I needed to succeed. Even today, I can still hear her voice as she said, “Cecil, I am so proud of you.”
In addition to being great in the classroom, Mrs. Smith was also an avid outdoor person. She loved to take us on field trips to explore nature.
Dr. Cecil W. Peyton – then and now.
On one particular trip, we all had to remove pine tree seedlings from a tree farm and plant and nurture them in our respective yards at home. Having grown up on a farm, I was so excited that I planted three pine trees at my home.
As those trees grew over the years, they continuously reminded me of Mrs. Smith who passed away about 35 years ago. It was only about five years, however, ago that we had to have the last of the three trees removed from the family’s estate for fear of it being struck by lightning. However, that site is marked by a ring of beautiful azalea plants that our mother planted years ago.
Yes, Mrs. Katie P. Smith was very special to me. I only wish that she could have lived long enough to witness the person that I have become.
Cecil W. Payton, PhD – The Kid from the “Wrong Side of the Railroad Tracks”
As the Presidential transition begins, one question is on every school leader’s mind. Who will be the next Secretary of Education?
For charter school leaders, the question is even more critical. Once universally accepted 20 years ago, charter schools have become—as many other issues have—an issue deeply divided across party lines, across the country’s varied geographic regions and demographic segments. The current uncertainty surrounding who takes the job makes for uncertain times for all those associated with the educational choice movement.
Charter school leaders are mavericks, charting their own course, often in the face of big challenges, often with odds stacked against them. And yet, in spite of it all, charter schools grow, the movement grows, and students thrive.
All of this can be made easier or more difficult by the Secretary of Education.
Last year, Biden promised his pick would be an educator.
“First thing, as president of United States – not a joke – first thing I will do is make sure that the secretary of education is not Betsy DeVos,” he said at a National Education Association forum for presidential candidates. “It is a teacher. A teacher. Promise.”
Governor Tony Evers — Wisconsin’s governor and former superintendent of public instruction.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia — president of the influential teachers’ union, the National Education Association.
Randi Weingarten — president of the influential teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers.
Michael Sorrell— president of Paul Quinn College and alumnus of the Clinton Administration.
Freeman Hrabowski – president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Should the position be offered to her, Randi Weingarten is unlikely to accept. In an interview Monday, she said, “I’m really happy doing what I’m doing. I’d be happy working with the Biden administration as president of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers).”
In early November, Chalkbeat floated names, including Janice Jackson, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Sonja Brookins Santelises, the head of Baltimore schools, and William Hite, Philadelphia superintendent. These candidates have worked harmoniously with charter schools in the part, and are also the preferred candidates of DFER – Democrats for Education Reform.
However, at a recent event Biden campaign’s policy director Stef Feldman said that “the vice president is pretty committed to the concept that we need to be investing in our public neighborhood schools and we can’t be diverting funding away from them.”
According to InsideHigherEd.com, Lodriguez Murray, the United Negro College Fund’s vice president of public policy and government affairs, said that if asked by the transition, he’d suggest Rep. Alma Adams, a Democratic congresswoman from North Carolina and a former professor at Bennett College, a historically Black institution for women in Greensboro, N.C., who was instrumental in pushing to make federal funding for HBCUs permanent.
The Washington Post reported pointed at Tony Thurmond, the California state superintendent of public instruction; Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, a Democrat from Connecticut and a former national teacher of the year; Betty Rosa, New York state’s interim commissioner of education; and Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau are under consideration.
EducationPost.org gives a nod to many of the main names mentioned thus far, but adds a few names to the list: Sandra Boham – president of Salish Kootenai College in Montana, Fidel Vargas – president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Susan Bunting – former superintendent of the year, Rep. Susie Lee – founder of Afterschool All-Stars in Las Vegas, NV, and former Governor of Massachussetts Jane Swift – who’s been focused on educational improvement through classroom innovation and technology solutions at LearnLaunch.
As one can see, there is no shortage of potential picks. The President-Elect has affirmed he’ll pick a teacher, which narrows it down to some extent. Whoever is chosen will shape the future of education for at least the next four years and, potentially, years to come.
Depending on that person’s opinions of school choice, charter schools could be more accepted – and the divide between teacher unions and charter schools could become less hostile. Alternatively, should President-elect Biden’s Secretary of Education pick not to advocate for the school choice movement, charter schools could face myriad uncertainty in their future.
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We were honored to present two sessions at RAPSA 2020.
As an organization, RAPSA focuses on helping educators working with at-promise students – with an emphasis that given the right support, all students can succeed.
It was fitting therefore that we featured Dr. Ramona Bishop as a speaker. Throughout a career spanning over two decades, Dr. Bishop has been a teacher, assistant principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent and now the CEO of her own public charter school, ELITE Public Schools. Dr. Bishop and her colleagues created Elite with the specific mission of helping under-served students – those students the mainstream system might have left behind.
Dr. Bishop was joined by our own Tricia Blum, VP of business services at Charter School Capital. Prior to joining CSC, Tricia was the CEO of a five-campus charter school – and this experience gives her solid understanding of the challenges faced by school leaders.
Dr. Bishop spoke about the components of ELITE as a school: entrepreneurial skill development, language development, dual-immersion pathway and the African-American and Latino Cultural Heritage program.
Tricia Blum gave some background on Charter School Capital. Our company has supported over 700 charter schools, serving over 1,250,000 students – and has invested over $2 billion in serving charter schools better serve their communities.
As a relatively-young school with a sizable student body (400 students), ELITE transitioned to online learning in Match of 2020 over the course of three days. The transition first started with paper packets distributed to students, but soon moved to Zoom-driven sessions, and email reminders and phone calls.
The transition exposed the huge digital divide in the student population. Many didn’t have a laptop, or internet access. The shortcomings of the original distance learning model became painfully visible. Working with parents, listening to parents’ feedback, input and ideas became paramount.
Lessons Learned
Through this dialog with parents, the charter school learned that this transition required more than just academic support – it required mental-health support, infrastructure, new educational formats, attention to students with focus challenges, student intervention groups.
The school responded by providing small learning groups after class day, the creation of a “learning space,” and ongoing discussions with parents to constantly improve their approach.
Staff and educator wellness became critical. Providing support for the teachers was highly prioritized.
The key takeaway is that a successful school is all about relationships. It hinges on ongoing communication with the key constituent groups – teachers, staff, students, parents, advocates, and the greater community.
Dealing with Uncertainty
Not only were the students confronted with the uncertainty of a global pandemic, but also with unprecedented (in their lifetime) racial strife and a highly-charged political climate, revealing systemic racism and deep divides, all of which signaled threats to an already-vulnerable student population.
The school provided context, by teaching about social-justice protests of the past, pandemics of the past, and past elections. The school used this moment as an opportunity to rethink, rebrand and re-strategize – to find even better ways to be there for the students.
Creative and innovative teachers seized the moment to thrive, leveraging technology, social media and new channels to enhance the student experience and advocate for their students.
Lessons Learned:
Create spaces and moments for students to process current events, and deal with their anxiety and stress
These spaces should be unbiased – including bringing outside third-parties to help navigate these times.
Teachers asking themselves, “how can I make more of a positive impact?” – and the school following this with “how can I better support the teacher?”
On Leadership
Dr. Bishop spoke about the role of a leader. More than a manager, a leader is there to motivate, to inspire, to provide the larger vision. Dr. Bishop calls this “step up, and step back.” Step up, meaning occupy fully the role of a leader. Be willing to be the person who others follow, be willing to be the voice of inspiration and certainty – even when at times that certainty might be hard to muster. And step back, meaning avoid micro-managing, let your teachers and staff exercise their roles fully, allow them to have agency and voice. And step back also to see the bigger picture, to gain perspective, which one can then use to provide vision and inspiration.
Lastly, Dr. Bishop spoke of how leaders should seek support as well. Support from the community, and support from allies and partners. Dr. Bishop spoke about the key role the parents and families of students played in these times, helping the school continue to grow by 20% even in the middle of a pandemic – and the key role of Charter School Capital, providing much needed capital that filled the funding gaps often experienced by a growing school.
Financing Options in the Age of COVID-19
We also brought to RAPSA a presentation on financing options, led by Ryan Eldridge, Senior New Business Specialist.
Ryan spoke about the financial solutions provided by Charter School capital, comparing our solutions to other paths available. He also touched on key factors to consider in making financial decisions at a charter school.
In words that echoed those of Dr. Bishop, Ryan spoke about what’s now officially a recession.
He spoke then about challenges faced in various states:
Schools in Georgia are experiencing a 10% cut in Quality-Based Education (QBE)
In Ohio, there’s a 3% cut in general funding
In Arizona, schools saw an additional $200 million in additional state funding
In Texas there were no cuts, and some schools received additional funding through specific programs
Financing Options
Ryan compared the available options for charter schools: Term loans, RAN or TRAN, Lines of credit, and a flexible funding line. According to Ryan, these should all be evaluated against the following factors: Flexibility, capacity, certainty and cost.
Further, in terms of the cost, this goes beyond just looking at the rate. The rate is influenced by annualized terms, by how it’s applied to the borrowed funds, by how the funds are released, how long the funds are outstanding. Lastly, issuance fees and any ongoing fees can be an important factor. During the webinar, Ryan showed a chart where $1.5M in funds have four different possible total cost:
Ryan’s comparison matrix for the four financing options available showed pros, cons and considerations:
We were honored to present two sessions at RAPSA 2020.
