April 2021 - Grow Schools

After a full year of mid-pandemic learning, a major topic among educators is bridging the education and social gap for students. As such, administrators plan to increase summer school in districts and charter schools across the country.

With the recently passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act and the $4.6 billion for Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) Grants in California, school leaders may finally have resources to support struggling students with summer programs.

According to The Washington Post:

“Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said schools need to be creative and employ a ‘sense of urgency’ to summer programming. ‘The summer learning experiences we’re talking about now really need to be better than they ever were in the past,’ he said in a call with reporters earlier this month. Cardona also said districts will need to work with local community groups and organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs of America to create additional learning opportunities and experiences for children.”

There’s no question: the need is there. But how do charter schools cover the expense?

While schools have struggled to cover the expense of summer school sources, they may now be able to afford the program thanks to additional National and State funding options. In the American Rescue Plan, Congress set aside $1.2 billion that states, districts, and schools must use to build successful summer programs.

Beyond supporting the student needs and accessing incremental funding, there are long-term benefits for the charter schools that deploy a summer school program.

While enrollment numbers are down (by about 155,000 students) and hit record lows across the state, parents are putting off their enrollment decisions longer than ever. Summer school provides an incredible opportunity to serve the community, support students, and give an introduction to your school that – done well – will encourage that family to stay with your school long term. While parents would default to the local district school in years past, a summer school program creates the soft entry into your curriculum to show that family and those in their community what alternative options are available to their student.

Article by Karen D’Souza, John Fensterwald, & Daniel J. Willis (republished from EdSource)

The pandemic has intensified a multi-year trend of dwindling student enrollment statewide, causing a steep drop this year. More than a third of the decline stemmed from 61,000 missing kindergartners.

Statewide, enrollment in K-12 public schools in California fell by almost 3%, or 160,000, students in 2020-21, according to annual data released Thursday by the California Department of Education. That’s the largest drop of the last 20 years, surpassing a 1% drop between October 2008 and October 2009.

That’s a net loss in students attending publicly funded schools. The last year has also seen an increase of 22,542 students attending publicly funded charter schools, which enroll about one in nine students in California.

There was also a notable dip at the level of 6th grade, with a decline of about 24,000 students. But the loss may not be as severe as it appears since this year’s 6th grade class is smaller than other years. The drop from last year’s 5th grade to this year’s 6th grade was 7,000.

The falling numbers were spread across the state, with the four largest school districts accounting for about a sixth of the decline in enrollment. Los Angeles Unified School District enrollment fell by 20,841 (4.76%); Long Beach by 2,003 (2.8%), San Diego by 4,270 (4.2%) and Fresno 909 (1.3%). In the Bay Area, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties all lost more than 3% and Marin fell by 4.7%.

There are some big variations among the state’s 2,291 districts and charter schools. Excluding county offices of education, 83% of traditional districts saw a decline in overall enrollment compared with only 48% of charter schools.

Most growth occurred outside of urban areas. Kern Union High School District, the state’s largest high school district with 41,854 students, grew 3%. Other districts where enrollment increased include Placer Union High School District, outside of Sacramento; Grossmont Union High School District in San Diego County and Dublin Unified, in Alameda County.

When it comes to kindergarten, however, the declines were more universal, a shift many experts expected. Across the state, more than four out of five districts with kindergartners saw a decline in kindergarten enrollment, and nearly 60% of charter schools that offer kindergarten also saw a decrease in kindergartners.

Causes for the slide in enrollment are myriad, complicated by existing trends including declining birthrates and people’s continued exodus from the state, as well as the sudden economic chaos wrought by the pandemic.

Confronted with the struggles of remote learning, including requiring a 5-year-old to sit still in front of a computer for hours daily while simultaneously balancing work and toddlers, some kindergarten parents simply kept their children in preschool, which offered the in-person interaction that young children need. Some parents also opted to send children to private schools, many of which resumed in-person instruction far more quickly.

Parents of about 20,000 students filed private school affidavits in 2020, bringing the total annual enrollment to about 517,000 students. The majority of these pupils shifted to homeschooling, state data show.

The loss of the kindergarten experience will reverberate for some students, even as educators consider how to make up for the lost time. Also, enrollment may bounce back if kindergartners return as 1st graders, as districts anticipate they will.

“California has among the largest achievement gaps in the country, and we know from research that those gaps are present before children arrive at school, so it is especially worrisome that so many kids missed out on kindergarten this year,” said Samantha Tran, senior managing director of education policy at Children Now, an advocacy organization. “This obviously was a hard year for children and families, and distance learning doesn’t really work for young kids. At this point, it will be critical that educators plan for and implement strategies to best serve all of the students who missed out on this critical step in their early schooling.”

Like kindergarten, 6th grade is also a traditional inflection point, when many students switch to a bigger middle school or shift to a private or charter school. Some families may have opted out of schooling entirely during the strife of the pandemic, or they may have left the state, seeking cheaper real estate and in-person instruction, all of which would cause a drop in the number of enrolled students.

“There’s not one single answer why. This is very complex because every family has their own circumstances,” said Stephanie Gregson, California’s chief deputy superintendent of public instruction. “We’ve seen a lot of people move out of California. That may have had an impact. Look at homeschool and look at private school. There are so many different factors that we can’t give you one succinct answer.”

It’s important to note that the state’s overall kindergarten figures include children in transitional kindergarten, a bridge between preschool and kindergarten for those born between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2. While these pupils will simply move up to kindergarten in the fall, traditional kindergartners will be expected to go to 1st grade, where experts say they may struggle. This issue is heightened by the fact that 1st grade is more academically rigorous now than in years past.

“In 1st grade, many children who have not been in kindergarten show more anxiety and sometimes completely shut down because they can’t do what their peers are doing,” said Janet Amato, a 1st-grade teacher in San Mateo. “I feel many parents don’t truly know all of what their child is expected to learn in kindergarten, so therefore don’t feel the need to send their child to school until first grade.”

Early childhood advocates have been calling for policies to support children who missed out on kindergarten due to the pandemic, especially since kindergarten is not mandatory in California.

“What will they do with the children who missed? Can they repeat? Can they go forward? What are we going to provide in the summer and fall going forward?” said W. Steven Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). “We need to address the learning loss and trauma due to the pandemic.”

Otherwise, some children, particularly those from low-income families, may struggle to keep up with their peers, worsening the already unsettling achievement gap. These concerns led Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, to introduce Senate Bill 70, which would require all students in California to complete one year of kindergarten before entering the 1st grade, beginning with the 2022-23 school year.

“Missing kindergarten for most kids raised in comfortable, highly literate families will make little difference long term,” said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley. “It’s the millions of children raised in homes where both parents work irregular hours, sitting before the TV in cramped housing. These young children, unable to attend kindergarten, will now enter public schools with weaker language and preliteracy skills.”

What steps should be taken?

Some say parents should have the option of placing a child in kindergarten instead of 1st grade, a stance that has champions in the Legislature. Assembly Bill 104, introduced by Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, would give any parent or guardian the authority to request that their child be held back a year.

Others believe that programs, such as summer school and tutoring, can help children catch up before they enter 1st grade. Those same strategies would likely benefit students in all grades, including those who opted out of 6th grade.

State leaders are hoping to help school districts reach out to those families who became disengaged with schooling during the tumult of the public health crisis. They also predict many students will return when in-person instruction resumes.

“In a year that has been so challenging for educators, students and families, it is concerning to see this decrease, especially those in our youngest grades,” said Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. “While there are many reasons to stay optimistic that enrollment will rebound as conditions improve, allowing more schools to safely return to in-person instruction, we also must help schools identify opportunities to engage with families who either sought new options for their students during the pandemic, or need additional resources and support to connect with school and succeed.”

Many educators are confident that children and families can bounce back from the tumult and loss of the past year.

“Incoming students survived a pandemic. We have to remember that. In normal years, I would encourage all families to enroll in kindergarten. But this year was different,” said Gennie Gorback, president of the California Kindergarten Association. “Every family had their own situation and made educational decisions based on their needs and resources. We have to respect their decisions. Then, we must get to know our students’ individual learning needs and plan accordingly.”

Any economic impact postponed

The decline in enrollment this year should not affect funding, either statewide or in districts that saw a drop. Funding is tied to the average of daily attendance throughout the year, not on enrollment, which is based on how many students were enrolled on the first Wednesday in October. For funding purposes, districts and charter schools get to choose whether to report the attendance of the current or previous year, whichever is higher. Because daily attendance was difficult to calculate this year, districts will choose last year’s figures before the pandemic sent students home, but adjusted for the whole year.

Next year, however, the Legislature is expected to revert to a standard way of calculating attendance, which means that some districts whose enrollment does not bounce back this fall will have to assume lower revenue in their 2022-23 budget.

Digging Into The Demographics

Enrollment fell in all ethnic and racial groups this year, but white students had the largest numerical decline — 77,000 — and second biggest percentage drop: 5.6%. Only the loss of Native American students — 6.6%, due to a drop from 30,282 to 28,331 students — was larger.

The number of African American students has fallen yearly since 2014-15. But the drop from 325,000 to 310,000 – 4.5% — was significant for one year.

Even though Latino enrollment fell by 61,000 students to 3.3 million, Latinos now comprise 55.3% of the state’s students, up 0.4%, which is a record proportion.

Overall, there are more seniors this year than in any year since 2015-16. That could reflect an increase in fifth year seniors who had trouble completing credits last spring after their schools rushed into distance learning, and they decided to return in order to graduate.

Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell introduced an anti-charter school bill scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Education Committee next Wednesday, April 28th. The bill would have a devastating impact on charter schools and create new mandates on school districts.

(To view the bill go to leginfo.legislature.ca.gov and put in the bill number AB 1316.)

In short, the bill does the following:

Creates new auditing and accounting standards to create parity between school districts and charter schools. Requires training for auditors and creates an Office of Inspector General in the Department of Education, among other things.
Creates a new funding determination process for non-classroom-based charter schools that would reduce the amount of funding they receive from the state.
Rewrites Independent Study law in California to require more teacher and student contact, a minimum school day, and metrics for ending Independent Study agreements.
Change vendor contracts by requiring vendor personnel to hold an appropriate credential, enforce competitive bidding and prohibit agreements from being calculated as a percentage of charter school revenue.
Prohibits the use of multi-year track systems.
Limits the ability of small school districts to authorize additional charter schools.
Increases oversight fees that charter schools pay their authorizer.

Again, these statutory changes would be devastating to charter schools, and the financial impact would be incredibly harmful. We ask everyone to call or email the members of the Assembly Education Committee and state their opposition to these changes. Below is the contact information for those members.

Assembly Education Committee:

Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell (Chair)
Phone number: (916) 319-2070
Email address: assemblymember.odonnell@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (Vice Chair)
Phone number: (916) 319-2006
Email address: assemblymember.kiley@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblyman Steve Bennett
Phone number:(916) 319-2037
Email address: assemblymember.bennett@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblywoman Megan Dahle
Phone number: (916) 319-2001
Email address: assemblymember.dahle@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblyman Alex Lee
Phone number: (916) 319-2025
Email address: assemblymember.lee@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty
Phone number: (916) 319-2007
Email address: assemblymember.mccarty@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva
Phone number: (916) 319-2065

Update: AB 1316 Moves Out of Committee

On Wednesday, AB 1316 by Assemblyman O’Donnell was voted out of the Assembly Education Committee on a party line vote, 5-2. As we have described before the measure has a number of anti-charter school provisions that were developed without input from parents, students, administrators and teachers. AB 1316 also creates several new mandates on school districts and creates an Office of Inspector General in the California Department of Education.

The measure next goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for a fiscal analysis and vote. The author is pushing this as a good governance measure that is needed to ensure that non-classroom based schools are good stewards of public dollars but it goes well beyond that. It would have a devastating impact on many schools and their programs and is an attempt to force more students back into in person instruction. Coming off a year where the state forced almost all public schools students into a distance learning model it is ironic that there is legislation attempting to curb that model of education.

We will keep you updated as the bill continues through the process.

You can view AB 1316 here.

According to new state projections, California traditional public schools are suffering a record enrollment drop of more than 155,000 students. That drop-off is about five times greater than California’s annual rate of enrollment decline in recent years, which boasts the largest student enrollment in the country.

As reported by California charter school leaders, the common theme driving this decline is the swell of parents who are frustrated with the way district schools are handling in-person learning. Meanwhile, agile and innovative charter schools have quickly pivoted and serve all aspects of student success during this trying time.

Parents are seemingly waiting longer to decide on educational options for their students, as they’re uncertain of what the needs will be. This is pushing back the traditional enrollment calendar we’ve seen in years past and creating a critical opportunity for charter schools on the student enrollment horizon.

Knowing charter schools can quickly and effectively pivot as needed to meet student needs (and the lift of California’s “Hold Harmless” provision stifling growth funding), California charter schools are now in an exciting position to acquire new students if they’re ready for it.

But there are three things charter schools need to communicate early and often to bring in those families:

Safety precautions in place to ensure kids and teachers are safe
Your intentions around holding in-person learning
The fact that your school has space!

If you can broadcast these components for parents now, there’s an ample opportunity for schools to grow enrollment for this year and ongoing retention in years to come. With California funding models going back to the normal cycle this year, schools will be paid for this incremental enrollment and can resume their school growth strategy.

While parents are procrastinating the decision this year to Spring or even Summer, there’s a short window here for schools to take advantage of this opportunity to introduce their charter school model to the community and support those students with an alternative education model.

Now is the perfect time to make sure you’re casting as wide a net as possible.

You can download the Digital Marketing for Charter Schools Manual here.

If you are unsure how to address this unconventional enrollment cycle, Charter School Capital has you covered. Every year we take on a small group of charter schools to support through a pay-for-performance Enrollment Marketing program.

Charter leaders can choose a program that focuses on generating awareness primarily through digital marketing or “ground game” marketing to convert applicants into enrolled students. Our enrollment marketing efforts will be customized for the school’s unique needs.

To learn more, visit the information page or contact growcharters@charterschoolcapital.com.

How many students should your school have? You’d be surprised how essential this question can become to your strategic decision-making as a charter school leader.

As the Vice President of Business Advisory Services at Charter School Capital, I often meet with school leaders to advise them on operations, fiscal decisions, governance, long-term strategy, and how to bring their vision for their school into reality. A significant part of that process is understanding a school’s growth goals. With a solid foundation in these areas, school leaders can provide sanctuary and educate their students.

Despite including a 5-year growth plan in the Charter application, I’ve found that some school leaders haven’t given much thought to their actual growth goals. In their view, they’ll start with the students they’re able to attract, then they’ll try to enroll more students, and then the school will grow organically.

While this is an understandable view, it leads to uncertainties in direction and budgeting. It can, at times, bring divisiveness and conflict to future board meetings as the growth vision remains unclear.

Some school leaders give this question a lot of thought. Even as they start their charter, they may already have a certain number in mind. Sometimes this number may be unrealistic, especially in terms of trajectory, causing worry and anxiety.

The Importance of Having A Destination

You’re probably familiar with the saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” There are entire business books on the topic of goal-setting.

I talked about this with a friend, and we landed on the metaphor of going on a hike. It feels very different whether you start walking with no clear goal of where you’re heading. Suppose you set out with a clear understanding that you’re aiming for the lake, or the mountaintop, or a waterfall. You might look at it on a map or GPS and know the destination is at 6.3 miles. This impacts your hike’s length, affecting when you take breaks and when you stop over for a bite. It influences how you ration your water, how much stuff you take with you, and how you plan the rest of your day. Moreover, it influences your state of mind. If you know that this is a four-hour hike, then you’re not likely to grow despondent at the three-hour mark – you know you’re getting close.

Knowing where you’re going tends to put a spring on your step, and it can make your pace a bit faster as you may challenge yourself to reach your destination by a specific time. It can boost morale as you find yourself crossing the halfway point and as you see the milestones along your path.

“How much do I need to grow?”

School leaders ask me whether there is a student enrollment ‘sweet spot’ for charter schools and how they can know what to aim for.

In my view, every school in each state will have a ‘sweet spot’ – at least when it comes to California charter schools. When it comes to California, I call it ‘the magic 450’. This number is specific to California charter schools because California real estate is much higher than in most other areas. Additionally, Some schools in other states make more in revenue, have lower fixed costs, etc. However, you can extrapolate the premise and apply it to your state.

The magic 450

In California, it’s really about having 450 enrolled. In my opinion, that’s the magic number that enables a school to be financially comfortable and to effectively use economies of scale without constantly looking over your shoulder and figuring out what expenses you need to cut. Of course, fundraising can change the magic enrollment number to a lower number of students (should your charter cap prevent you from getting to 450.

Fixed Expenses

We know a school’s revenue is tied to students. Enrollment is your big variable driver, and to a large extent, it’s a variable driver under your control. When you’re talking about finances, the expenses break down into infrastructure and buildings and staff and supplies, and these fall into two large buckets: fixed costs and variable costs.

Your fixed costs mostly stay the same whether you have 200 students, 450 students, or 1200 students. As your enrollment increases, your fixed costs don’t move. Just your variable costs do, adding teachers, technology, food services, etc. There are expansion jumps, as in the case of moving into a larger building. But aside from these strategic expansion decisions, your fixed costs likely stay the same. My main point is that these are predictable and constant.

At 450 students, your ratio of fixed vs. variable expenses is healthy, with fixed costs becoming a smaller percentage of your budget overall. And your revenue provides for both fixed and variable costs to be nicely aligned.

In my experience, this magic number of 450 is where your enrollment brings in enough funding so that you can have enough leadership, enough administrative personnel, enough teachers in the classroom. You can focus on special programs. You can have offerings that might be different from other charter schools. You can also have a capital investment account so that one day you can build a gym, ball fields or find your school a forever home.

Starting Strong, Growing Steady

Depending on your area, the strength of your ties within your community, and the immediate demand for your school’s services, you can formulate a strategy that will work best for you.

One approach is to have that sweet spot as a goal at the very onset. The leaders of E.L.I.T.E Schools rallied the community behind their vision for a charter school in Vallejo Valley and opened with nearly 400 students.

Logistics and Planning

Knowing your enrollment goal can also help you plan in terms of facilities and resources. Your relationship with your school building can be a comfortable one, where your school building is an asset, or it can be an albatross around your neck.

Suppose that you hoped for a lot more expansion, but you didn’t engage sufficient enrollment marketing, and now you’re facing empty rooms in a building that is much too big for your current student body. This can deplete your reserves, cause you anxiety, and affect your school culture. A new but unused wing can make a school feel empty and institutional. There is a specific energy that comes with a full building.

On the flip side, suppose you did not plan for growth, and suddenly you find yourself with more students than your building can handle. Now you have to scramble to find a new building, and it can add stress to everyone involved.

Having a solid growth plan will lead to sound decisions regarding resources, facilities, and hiring.

Strategies for Growth

An excellent approach to growth is the model adopted by E.L.I.T.E. Schools. The leaders engaged the community from the start, and constantly include parents and community in their decisions. As a result, the school has a strong external team of advocates and evangelizers.

Another strong strategy is to learn, through consumer research, the specific programs that families in the area are hoping to see. It could be a specific language, or a strong STEM program, or an organic garden and education about farm-to-table, etc. Then, focusing your efforts on promoting that specific program can result in higher enrollment.

Enrollment marketing is a topic in itself. If you have the time and energy, learning about digital marketing, search engine optimization and social media engagement can prove valuable. However, many school leaders prefer to focus on education, and work with an external resource. Charter School Capital offers a pay-for-performance enrollment marketing solution that allows you to focus on your core strengths while we work to drive awareness, interest and enrollments for your school.

Every School is Unique

Of course, your school is unique. You might find that your school achieves a sustainable momentum before you get to 450 students. This will depend on your school’s specific finances and composition.

But keep pushing for that magic 450. And somewhere along that hike, you will notice that you’ve found ‘the sweet spot.’ Things will get easier. Things will feel like they’re just moving along. The feeling of climbing an incline becomes a sense of walking sure-footed down a path. And soon enough, you’ll find yourself at the mountaintop.

What do you think? What has been your own experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

California’s Hold Harmless provision was paved with good intentions, and we all know that sometimes the best intentions have unintended consequences.

Back in June 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order freezing funding for California schools. The new state budget extended the 2019-2020 attendance levels and base per-pupil funding rates to 2020-2021. This “Hold Harmless” measure, intended to safeguard California schools from predicted declining enrollment due to the pandemic, had an unwanted negative impact on growing schools – charter schools and district schools alike.

The Error: Not Accounting for Growth

The shortsightedness was not considering growth. Several schools had received approval to open new schools or grow their enrollment in the fall of 2020. For schools that expanded their facilities or increased enrollment, this measure cut their legs from under them, as it prevented those schools from receiving the increased funding justified by their growth. This placed many such schools under undue duress.

During the 2020 summer, four charter schools filed a lawsuit (pdf) in the California Superior Court, claiming the state’s funding formula would illegally deny payments for new students.

The Shortcomings of SB 820

As a band-aid solution, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 820. This bill allows growing schools to receive higher levels of funding proportional to their increased enrollment. However, the plaintiffs in the Atkins case raised concerns. SB 820 provides for actual or projected enrollment funding, but it only honors the lower of the two enrollment numbers. Should a charter school succeed in enrolling many more students than projected, it would have to contend with the funding shortfall.

The other significant issue with SB 820 is that the bill specifically targeted non-classroom-based schools as ineligible for receiving any growth funding in fiscal year 2021. In other words, any additional students the school onboarded would receive $0 per student, inhibiting non-classroom-based charters in high demand from serving students.

What’s Happening Now

Recently, California lifted the Hold Harmless provision for fiscal year 2022. However, many charter schools are not filing the spring enrollment count in fiscal year 2021 (P2). This would typically set the stage for a school’s final apportionment for that year and determine the funding amounts for the first half of fiscal year 2022. With schools not filing in the spring, their Advance Apportionment (generally July 2021 – January 2022) funding will be at the same level as in the previous year.

When schools file P1 in January 2022, schools will claim their new student numbers and ultimately get a true-up for their additional students (this funding will be spread through the Spring 2022 funding amounts). For growing schools, this creates a seven-month gap to navigate.

During this timeframe, schools that have grown will have to manage all the additional expenses for onboarding and growth without the funding to match from the state until February 2022. This will be the most significant financial challenge for any school growing into fiscal year 2022.

Remember, this is a timing gap, not an actual financial burden in the school’s long run. New students will add long-term value to the school by providing additional resources to deploy back into the program, benefitting the entire student population.

Additionally, since this P1 count will be the first time funding numbers are changing since fiscal year 2020, it will be the first time in three years that charter schools are finally getting appropriately funded, based on reported and validated numbers. With many students going back to school in the fall, this will likely create an undue financial hardship to expanding schools.

Aside from the practical problem of securing financing, this is likely to have a demoralizing effect on school administrators and educators – it’s like getting penalized for success.

What Can Your School Do? Our Key Four Recommendations

Grow for efficiencies
Have cash on hand
Develop a solid fiscal projection
Have a financing resource available at your disposal

Growth Is Survival

As we covered in a recent blog post by Tricia Blum, the best way to reach sustainability and add value to your students is to grow. The main reason for this is in the simple formula of fixed costs vs. variable costs. By expanding your enrollment, you’re reducing your fixed costs’ footprint, leading to more control over your school’s financial position.

Growth is a long-term strategy. Once you onboard a new student, your school’s cost will decrease over time, while the revenue will increase. This will expand your school’s long-term financial resources, enabling you to develop and deploy new programs, buy supplies, hire more teachers, etc.

The challenge for California schools is that, unless they have significant reserves, they’re likely to need some form of interim financing.

Cash on Hand

Almost more important than the annual budget is your month-to-month cash flow. If the school isn’t paid on a portion of your students until the second half of the year, will you have the capital to cover the expenses related to those students?

Most schools aim to have a cash balance of up to 60 days of cash on hand. At that level, the school could survive two months in the event revenue is interrupted. If your school doesn’t have such a reserve, you should seriously consider an established financing source (Reminder: the funding gap will return to a full 7+ months in fiscal 2022).

A Solid, Realistic Projection

In uncertain times, the more certainty, the better. Work out a solid projection of your next fiscal year (and beyond). Add a realistic forecast of revenues, all anticipated expenses, a realistic forecast of cash-flow monthly going forward, and always add a margin for incidentals.

Work with your back-office provider (BOP) or internal resource. If you don’t have someone like that, find a partner that can help you with financial planning. At Charter School Capital, we make our Business Consulting services available to each of our clients.

Send In the Cavalry: Having a Financing Resource at the Ready

Even with a reliable cash-flow forecast and known cash-on-hand, your school must have a financial backup plan. By doing so, you’re preparing your school for a potentially significant, unexpected revenue challenge with the state or another COVID-related crisis.

If you want to learn more about how to finance your school’s growth, download our growth guide or contact our team. We can help you forecast your cash flow, evaluate your school’s needs, and provide a financing backup plan that’s ready to execute in case of emergency.