May 2021 - Page 2 of 2 - Grow Schools

We’re proud of the schools we serve. Each one of these schools has a unique mission, and each serves a unique group of students. These schools are led by idealists, dreamers, compassionate optimists who not only believe in a better tomorrow, they believe in rolling up their sleeves and bringing that better tomorrow to their students. It is a privilege for us here at Charter School Capital to support these schools and help them thrive.

Here is a blog post from SET (School for Entrepreneurship & Technology), a charter school in San Diego, California.

With flexible schedules, a wide array of electives, and dual enrollment with Mesa College, our SET High students enable promising futures as they influence what, when and how they learn. Our Honors courses probe mighty depths, while our small classes and Passion Projects keep our students engaged at a level seldom seen for grades 9-12. It’s no small feat; but also one we enjoy and invest in very seriously. We ignite — or reignite — each student’s love for learning. It’s a deliberate and intentional process.

Students often come to SET High enticed by our small public school environment. No one gets lost or ignored and every individual is recognized for who they are as well as where they are on their life journey.

“SET High has been one of the most important assets to my education, as my previous schools never attained the level of kindness, help, and understanding that SET High has.”

— Former SET student

Teachers are highly involved and invested in every SET student’s success. Our teachers actively guide and inspire each unique individual alongside our collective faculty POV that learning and long term retention happen when there’s passion.

Passion is the fuel that ignites learning and discovery. This passion could be for a particular subject, a cause, or an expression of art. Passion Projects is the SET program that recognizes the power of helping students discover their gifts, their passion. Our teachers lead each student to higher personal academic achievement, and ultimately, our school sees higher overall attendance rates..

SET High students stay engaged through graduation. Our phenomenal attendance and graduation rates speak volumes as to how our students are literally showing up each day. Passion Projects inspire our high school students to create and learn beyond “normal” school curriculum. Passion Projects also ignite students’ self-confidence and interpersonal skills to become the next generation of business and social leaders.

“I think SET is an amazing school because I’m given an opportunity to do other projects besides math and English…We have full range to do whatever we’re passionate about.”

— Former SET High Student

At SET, we ensure that ALL students thrive in a safe and effective learning environment. We do not tolerate bullying, and students and faculty at SET High practice full acceptance. Not tolerance; acceptance. We heartily participate in and savor our inclusive and accepting learning environment including our student-led, self-organized clubs. These clubs are created to support all walks of life such as LGBTQIA+, peer tutoring/peer buddy system, and military meetup for children of parents in the military.

Another role our teachers tackle is as advisor. With our SET High advisory programs, each advisory teacher advocates, promotes, assists and reinforces a student’s personalized path within a 1:1 rapport. Designed to work like families, each individual student’s academic, personal and leadership growth blossoms. Our students are safe, comfortable, and familiar with our school’s flexible and nimble learning environment and we’ve seen test scores heartily increase while truancy rates plummet.

“This school develops strong character in its students, like integrity, compassion, and respect. The school is big on reinforcing the concept of doing things the right way and making good decisions in life.”

— SET Parent

Our Passion Project program, launched in the fall of 2016, captivates students as they discover their passion. It could be an academic subject, a much loved hobby, a dream for a business, an expression of talent or the drive to answer the question, “what if…”.

Passion Projects are an outgrowth of our school’s dynamic entrepreneurial mindset. Our 9th-12th graders collaborate to create works of art, start a business or investigate a problem.
All students — from incoming freshmen, to newly transferred juniors, to graduating seniors — are invited to ponder what they are passionate for, to set up a project to tap into and ignite those dreams and to share it with their SET peers and community.

“I’ve had so many opportunities here that I would have never had at other schools. They’re going to find your skills and they’re going to grow them. “

— Former SET student

We are rooted in the belief that students who are passionate about what they are learning, don’t just survive their high school years, they thrive. We see our SET High students not only go above and beyond the minimum requirements at our school. We see deeper engagement in all academic classes and scholastic pursuits, even those they once found less appealing.

SET High is a game-changing high school experience. We ignite passions, love of learning and an appreciation for how invested teachers matter. Our 9th-12th grade students discover, express and achieve success via passions for business, science, technology and the arts. Ignite or re-ignite a love for learning, today! Enroll with SET.

About SET High School

SET High offers each student individual attention from multi-talented, highly-qualified teachers, a healthy camaraderie with classmates and an intellectually rigorous environment that brings out their talents and personality. With a wide variety of electives, flexible scheduling, dual enrollment college classes and more — our students regularly exceed their academic and personal expectations. Enrolling now!

California charter schools have experienced two years of funding hardship. Additionally, schools nationwide have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, adjusting nearly everything about the teaching container. There’s been massive changes to the way teaching is done, and the way schools interact with students. Schools have had to invest in technology, train teachers, hire additional staff and make all sorts of adjustments to teach their students safely during this health crisis.

Fortunately, the Federal Government has responded to educators’ needs with school funding relief packages, including The CARES Act, which went into law on Friday, Mach 27, 2020. That legislation included over $30 billion in emergency school funding.

Along with The Cares Act funding, we’ve broken down other funding sources for California charter schools and included strategic recommendations on leveraging those funds.

ESSER Funds

The first source for this founding is Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER I Fund) The ESSER fund includes approximately $13.2 billion of funding for all states and California’s allocation is $1,6+ billion.

GEER Funds

The second source of emergency funding for schools is the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER I Fund).

The GEER I Fund includes approximately $3 billion of funding for all states, and California’s allocation is $355,227,235. This funding will channel through local educational agencies (LEAs). These emergency relief funds aim to help elementary and secondary schools recover from the impact COVID-19 had and continues to have on their budgets.

LLMF Funding

The Learning Loss Mitigation Funding (LLMF) includes $5,3 billion nationwide, stemming from three different funding sources and allocated to local educational agencies (LEAs). The funds are specifically aimed at supporting student academic achievement and mitigate learning loss related to disruptions in education resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.

(You can read about these funding packages here.)

What Should You Do With These Funds?

These funds are a substantial amount. For some schools, they may represent 20%-30% of their annual revenue. Choosing how to spend this money will be a critical strategic decision for most California charter schools.

First of all, these funds are reimbursable. What that means is that you need to spend them in order to receive them. That’s why it’s crucial to have a spending plan in place.

It’s essential to know these funds are fungible, unlike students. For example, if you’ve been contracting for an educational service or product that is not part of your school, and you’ve been paying that through regular State funding or through receivable sales, you can submit that as an ESSER reimbursable expense. You can use your ESSER funding for any number of expenses to serve your students. (Of course, before you assume an expense is allowed by ESSER, check California guidelines to ensure that you’re in full compliance.)

Spending for Growth

These funds give your school some great expansion opportunities. You can serve more students, or serve existing students with more programs or upgraded facilities.

Special Programs

If you’ve been hoping to bring in a special program, such as a Hebrew-language program, or a STEM program, and you need to hire educators, allocate infrastructure and buy materials for that, this may be the time to move on that.

A word of caution here: I do recommend that any new programs are deployed as a pilot, setting expectations to a finite length (I suggest one or two years). It is important that this one-time school funding package does not lead you into long-term financial commitments which could become a liability down the line.

Bolstering Infrastructure

This might be the time to invest in your school building. This could include building maintenance. The COVID pandemic brought increased awareness of airborne contaminants. Many schools have responded by overhauling their air-purification systems.

Community Involvement

Getting the community involved in how to use these funds provides an excellent opportunity to build local connections. Consider organizing a town hall meeting with parents and other neighborhood stakeholders to discuss discuss which needs the community feels your school could fulfill. What might emerge could be an after-school program, or the need for school transportation, or other initiatives that might not even be in your line of vision. Allowing the community to participate in this process is a wonderful way to build allies and rally the community in support of your school.

Enrollment Marketing

The most direct way to impact school growth is through continuous and intentional enrollment marketing. As we described in a previous blog post, this is a time to look at your waitlist, ensuring that you have a strong pipeline to keep your rosters healthy with incoming pupils.

Enrollment marketing is a combination of initiatives. This may include collateral, pamphlets, word of mouth, and digital marketing – and ideally it includes what I like to call your ‘Ground Game,’

Your ground game is composed of initiatives like a standing weekly tour of your school, even including tours in the summertime when your school is not in session. It includes a monthly open meeting with the CEO or the Principal. You can tailor these to your unique style and your school’s needs. The idea is to create opportunities for parents and potential new students to interact with the school, to show transparency, and raise parent confidence in your school’s programs.

Your school should also have solid branding. You should have a unique, recognizable logo that communicates your school’s focus and mission. You should have collateral, brochures and leaflets, and other informational material. With these COVID funds, you have an opportunity to bolster what you currently have – or seize the opportunity to launch a new branding initiative.

Most of all, your enrollment marketing should include a solid, strategic digital marketing plan. This involves several digital channels – it includes website design, email marketing, blogging, Facebook ads, Google ads, and social media marketing. If you happen to be well-versed in these disciplines, all the better. In most cases, it’s best to outsource these marketing efforts to a professional marketing team. This allows school leaders to focus their time on what they do best – serving students.

Charter School Capital offers a pay-for-performance enrollment marketing service. Our knowledgeable team of school marketing professionals brings new students to you, and you only pay based on actual growth.

Why Focus on Growth?

While these funds are substantial, they’re not a steady revenue stream. It’s vital to channel these funds toward long-term sustainability. Consider that a percentage of your operational expenses are student-specific, while a percentage is a fixed cost. There is a ‘sweet spot‘ where a school’s fixed costs become a low enough percentage of the budget and the school moves into long-term financial viability. In my experience, most California schools should aim for 450 students. Depending on your area, this number could be lower or higher. I encourage you to set a goal for this ‘sweet spot’ and grow your school towards it. These COVID relief funds give you a golden opportunity to do so.

We’re proud of the schools we serve. Each one of these schools has a unique mission, and each serves a unique group of students. These schools are led by idealists, dreamers, compassionate optimists who not only believe in a better tomorrow, they believe in rolling up their sleeves and bringing that better tomorrow to their students. It is a privilege for us here at Charter School Capital to support these schools and help them thrive.

Here is a blog post from Edge High School, Tuscon, Arizona.

At Edge, students, staff and families listen to each other. Our open door, “no conversation is too hard” approach informs everything we do. We want to know when things are challenging and we want to share the joy in every accomplishment, even those that might feel small.

Respect and fairness are cornerstones at our alternative high school. We take a service-based approach towards every member of our Edge community and we make every effort to collaborate on what’s the next right thing. We have a zero tolerance for shaming of any kind and our teachers and staff embrace their opportunity to know every student as an individual and to support their academic dreams.

Listening, respect and fairness inform how and why we were created, as a school, way back in ’85. It’s also how we continue as a safe school. These aren’t buzzwords for us. We’re playing the long game for and with every student who joins our school. And their families.

In our recent survey of Edge families, we learned:

100% of parents know who to contact with questions or concerns

This matters to us on a deep level. It means that not only are we reaching our students — so they know who to call, email or meet online 1:1 with when they need us. Their caregivers, support people, parents and extended family know how to find us as well.

Image by Creatista

We are nothing without our students. 100% true. Our best efforts to support our high schoolers means we also support and honor the people who love them at home and in their community. That’s why we embrace the feedback that these support people know who to contact with questions or concerns.

We also know that sometimes we don’t know. And when in that scenario — we call in the experts. When it comes to supporting the health and well-being of all of our Edge family,

Edge is partnering with Jorgensen Brooks. The employee and student assistance programs provide access to free counseling services and other resources.

At Edge high school we value mutual respect and inclusivity. Our entire approach to high school and our time together revolves around equality and equity for all. We continually and enthusiastically strive together towards the same shared goal – to help our students achieve academic dreams and high school graduation.

We are in this together, no matter the credit discrepancies, unique learning needs or other barriers to success. You know where and how to find us if you need us!

And remember we are enrolling. If you know anybody who needs a different high school experience… send them our way. Enrolling now — and year-round.

About Edge

EDGE is a Cognia accredited, tuition-free, charter high school, with two campuses in the greater Tucson area. We provide an alternative to traditional education, meeting the diverse learning and life needs of our students with our blended curriculum and flexible morning or afternoon class schedules. Our high-quality, passionate teachers are dedicated to individualized instruction in our small academic classes. Be you. With us. At EDGE!

We’re proud of the schools we serve. Each one of these schools has a unique mission, and each serves a unique group of students. These schools are led by idealists, dreamers, compassionate optimists who not only believe in a better tomorrow, they believe in rolling up their sleeves and bringing that better tomorrow to their students. It is a privilege for us here at Charter School Capital to support these schools and help them thrive.

Here is a blog post from Almond Acres Academy, of San Miguel, California.

Bob Bourgault, Executive Director, at Almond Acres Charter Academy has invented a philosophical approach to raise the level of consciousness of self (and others) as we all journey on the quest to becoming the best version of ourselves. His model, used in all grades in AACA, is aimed at kids and for use in classroom and childhood environments, but also has specifics for teens and adults, and has been presented to businesses and organizations, too.

The model is represented visually as a kite — with four quadrants and four colors, each representing a different aspect of our intelligence, temperament, personality, and learning modalities. We are all a combination of learner and one who is learning.

Bob believes every one of us is smart, beautiful, spiritual and talented. And this kite model helps us understand our unique abilities, learning styles, and existence — even further.

What is a kite?

It is a simple system for children to categorize their innate disposition using colors, visuals, and words to help students recognize what kind of learner they are, and how they can use their unique set of intelligence to influence the world. While there are many personality tests for adults, such as Meyers Briggs or Enneagram, Bob’s system is unique because it is designed specifically for children, and adapted for teens and adults.

What are my strengths and struggles?

Every school year each K-8 student at Almond Acres creates their kite: a visual representation of their individual strengths and struggles in heart, mind, body, and soul. These four unique sets of intelligence are represented by four quadrants and with four colors on each individual’s kite — red, blue, green and yellow.

The question a child typically asks first is drawn from his/her personal temperament. There is a desire to seek answers that satisfy our inner curiosity. For example, a child with a strong blue kite has a dominant interpersonal intelligence and will likely be drawn to the ‘who’ question. A green kite thinks more intra-personally and asks why. The red thinker wants to know where and how because he/she is more hands-on and visually smart. The yellow kite considers the logistics of a question and asks what and when. If we follow the natural questioning path that a child travels, we are likely to lead him/her straight to the correct answers.

It’s the difference between being given a toy car and given a model to build a toy car. And with this visual model — students can realize how smart they are because they understand HOW they are smart. It’s a paradigm shift. Students also create a class kite — to represent their group dynamic — and every AACA teacher shares their individual kite with the class as well.

Asking questions like who, why, what and when or where and how helps to define an approach to thinking, creating and learning. Each of these questions represents two of the eight types of intelligence and the whole person:

Body: kinesthetic and visual/spatial
Mind: linguistic and logical
Soul: musical and intrapersonal
Heart: interpersonal and naturalist

“Our son has learned so much about his personal learning style and what makes him a unique learner and he can communicate that to EVERYONE at AACA because every year every student creates their kite: a visual representation of their individual strengths and weaknesses in heart, mind, body, and soul.”

At Almond Acres the kite is used in many ways including the school logo, uniform colors and on lunch tables. Kite cards, as they’re called, are round – to symbolize the whole person. AACA also believes we are all a whole person first. Once we affirm how everyone is strong — then every student and staffer can be stretched, and then celebrated as they grow, learn and fly!

About AACA

Almond Acres is moving to Paso Robles. Almond Acres Charter Academy is a public, tuition-free K-8 school that employs credentialed teachers and administers state-mandated testing to provide families in northern SLO County an additional choice in public education. Open to all students in all communities, the school is currently located in San Miguel and moving to Paso Robles for the 2021-22 school year. AACA’s mission is to help students succeed academically and socially by educating the whole child: heart, mind, body and soul. We grow great kids!

We’re proud of the schools we serve. Each one of these schools has a unique mission, and each serves a unique group of students. These schools are led by idealists, dreamers, compassionate optimists who not only believe in a better tomorrow, they believe in rolling up their sleeves and bringing that better tomorrow to their students. It is a privilege for us here at Charter School Capital to support these schools and help them thrive.

Here is a blog post from Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis.

Recently, Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis lost a beloved member of our charter school. We are heartbroken. As we process our grief, we are reminded why we are a school community to begin with; we are here to be of service. We founded this school to instill strong academic pride in fifth to eighth graders — alongside deep character foundations and meaningful ethics. We are fully aware that our middle schoolers face challenges daily and have suffered terrible losses in their short lives. We are here to be of purposeful support for our scholars and families.

Middle school is stressful. In the best of times, the growth arc from fifth to eighth grade includes a rollercoaster of new hormones, more complex emotions, peer pressure and a heightened awareness of society and the world we inhabit. Right now, today, is not even close to the best of times. Every Vanguard student is managing incredible emotions due to the ongoing pandemic and the increase in violence to Black and Latinx communities. Feelings of isolation and fear are constant. How can we help?

Social-Emotional Learning at Vanguard Collegiate

We include social-emotional learning (SEL) in our school days together to help every scholar understand and contextualize their feelings and experiences, and to carve out space to process what is happening in their lives and in their bodies. We also offer SEL as a way to stay connected to each other, to better comprehend the importance of our school as a place of comfort and guidance — and to share our distress and our struggles, whenever needed.

Physical changes can happen hard and fast in middle school. We see our fifth to eighth-grade scholars growing rapidly, and having huge appetites. Our scholars need more sleep. Some scholars are suddenly faster runners, but less agile. It’s all part of the middle school growth process, but it can feel strange.

So, too, are the mental health challenges of middle school. Feelings and emotions change fast, feel more intense, or can be hard to let go. Recognizing and maintaining personal values can be harder than it used to be. Questioning authority and pushing back against boundaries is a new thing. Introspection, mood swings and a need for privacy might spring up seemingly overnight. We want to help our families, our community, and every middle schooler as an individual. Vanguard is here to be of service.

How to help

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental, emotional or social health, here is how we help:

Our School Counselor Marcia Lomax can be contacted anytime via email: marcia_durham@hotmail.com
National Suicide Support Hotline: 800-273-8255
Text IN To 741741 For Suicide Prevention

We are the only standalone middle school in the Near Westside and we are proud to serve this community. We reflect the diversity of our surrounding neighborhood and our teachers and staff look like the community we serve. We pledge to maintain our SEL efforts, to support every unique Vanguard scholar and family, to grow and serve together as a purposeful educational staff, and to embrace our broad and beloved 46222 community. This is the Vanguard way.

About Vanguard

Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis is unapologetically focused on the academic success of our scholars, our fifth to eighth-grade students. Situated in Central Indianapolis, we provide high-quality instruction, rigorous curriculum, and supportive character development. We create pathways to college success and to becoming leaders in thought, word, and action. Be a Vanguard, today!

Each year, Charter School Capital hosts the Dewey Awards to honor teachers who have significantly impacted students’ lives. Two Genesee STEM Academy students wrote the following stories about their homeroom instructor, Mrs. Brasseur. It is a testament to Mrs. Brasseur’s positive influence in her young charges that two separate students wrote us to tell us about her.

From Myracle Hunter:

Hello, I am Myracle Hunter a junior at Genesee STEM Academy. In this essay I will be writing about my homeroom teacher Mrs. Brasseur.

I choose to write about Mrs. Brasseur because she has had the biggest impact on my life. She helped me when I was going through a bad time in my life. She helped me stay positive and motivated to keep going. She’s always there when you need advice. In this paragraph. I will be telling you how she had the biggest impact in my life.

I say she has had the biggest impact on my life as a teacher because when it felt like no one else understood where I was coming from. Mrs. Brasseur sat down with me and let me explain myself and the situation and even thought it was complicated she understood it and helped me throughout it. She guided me to see my purpose in life and encouraged me to help others. Next, I would like to tell you why I believe she tells you the best advice.

I remember one time me and some other LGBT+ students were kind of lost about others that shared the same interest as us. So, Mrs. Brasseur threw a little pride get together where all the ones who didn’t know about pride or felt like there wasn’t anyone else like the could come together and meet other students like them and shared the same believes and interest. Of course, there was requirements to attend the gathering. You didn’t just have to be part of the LGBT+ community you could’ve just been a supporter. It was an in-school event, so you had to meet the school requirements to. After the pride event it started some bonds with people and showed others there not by their selves and its others going through the same thing. I think there’s a lot of student that need a Mrs. Brasseur in their lives.

When I say” there’s a lot of student that need a Mrs. Brasseur in their lives” I mean someone who is caring and loving but isn’t scared to show you tuff love kind of like a mom but your teacher. This is why I think Mrs. Brausseur is the best teacher with the biggest impact on me she taught me how to not to be selfish and care for others. She also taught me how to communicate and get my point across without arguing.

From Mariyah:

Today we are going to be talking about one of the teachers that made and impact in my life and her name is Megan Brassuer but as her student I call her Mrs. Brassuer. Now, Mrs. Brassuer was my homeroom teacher from last year which was the 8th grade and she’s been helping me since day one I went to her a lot when there was something on my mind and she listened. Mrs. Brassuer was not only a great teacher and still is a great teacher she also listened to her students’ problems and always checked to see if they were ok mentally.

She is one of the teachers that have helped me though good and bad times rather it had been about school or my mental health , I will say I’ve had my days and her and a few of my other teacher would ask me how I’m doing but she always gave the advice that I needed to hear. It wasn’t just for me either I wasn’t the only student she had cared for she cared for all her students. I really took in her advice because a lot of stuff I was going through she had went through to for example struggling with weight gain, so she gave me a lot of good advice on that.

At the time I wasn’t really self-motivated, and she was one of my teachers that pushed me other than my math teacher. Mrs. Brassuer also brought me out of my shell I wasn’t as talkative as everybody else she kind of told me like hey its ok to ask for help and talk to your peers so really her and my other teachers helped and still are helping me become who I am today and they’re helping me get to where I need and want to be. She is still my teacher this year as well and she still keeps us motivated and checks on us even though school is virtual. She helps me a lot this year too like I was struggling at the beginning of the year and she basically told me and the class that we can get it together and pick our grades up before the time is up and she also checked up on me when I was sick and she does this with the other students too. Even when talking to my mom she addressed everything I was going through mentally and she also told them when I was struggling in school. She talked to her about my progress, and about everything.

So, she really made a difference in my life and I appreciate her for looking out for me.