Grow Schools, formerly Charter School Capital, Author at Grow Schools

The Charter School Capital team is packing up and getting ready to head to Columbus, Ohio next week to celebrate the 18 years of charter school growth in the state.
We’re proud of our continued partnership with the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools and be the Diamond Sponsor of this year’s Ohio Charter Schools Conference.
Our focus at the conference will be on the 4T’s – teachers, textbooks, transportation, and technology – and how our growth capital can help fund these and other operational needs. Our facilities team will also be on hand to help schools learn more about our facilities financing options and how we can provide schools more control over their facilities needs.
If you’re attending the conference, check out one of our informative breakout sessions:

Charter School Growth Strategies — Start-up, Expansion, Maturity

Thursday, November 12 | 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. | 2nd Floor: Senate Chamber

Charter schools face a variety of challenges at each stage of growth. This panel session will outline these stages of growth from start-up to expansion to mature school and highlight the challenges schools face at each stage. Our panel of experts will offer best practices learned from their experiences.

Panelists:

Skip Hansen, EVP of Business Development, Learn4Life Concept Charter Schools
Dr. Darlene Chambers, President and CEO, Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools
Stuart Ellis, CEO, Charter School Capital

Digital Marketing 101 for Charter Schools

Thursday, November 12 | 2:45 – 3:45 p.m. | 2nd Floor: Senate Chamber

Charter school growth requires solid student enrollment and retention programs that position the school for growth. Attendees will dive into digital marketing strategies with an overview of the digital landscape and learn why it’s relevant to charter school expansion and replication. Best practices will also be highlighted for school leaders to implement for their charter schools.

Panelists:

Scott Kaufmann, Partner, Lucid Agency
Kim Brater, VP of Marketing, Charter School Capital
Michael Barber, Founder, barber&hewitt

Late last month, the California legislature adjourned for the year, ending the 2015-2016 legislative session. The session saw a flurry of legislative activity, some related to charter school operations in the state.
We’ve invited Branché Jones, California Legislative Consultant, and Barrett Snider, Partner at Capital Advisors Group, to join our President and CEO, Stuart Ellis, for a California Budget and Legislative Update webinar that will provide high level updates and commentary around the most recent budget and legislative cycle.
California Budget and Legislative Update, Tuesday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. PST.
Branché, Barrett, and Stuart plan to cover the following:

Political Updates
Legislative Updates
Budget Updates
2016 Prospectus

Please join us by registering for the webinar. We look forward to seeing you there!

Planning to boost student enrollment? Looking at classroom improvements and upgrades? Want to maintain control over your school facilities?
Join us for an informative webinar that will feature facilities options for charter schools.
Tuesday, October 6, 9:00 a.m. PST / 12:00 p.m. EST
REGISTER TODAY!
Finding and securing state-of-the-art facilities and financing is a challenge charter school leaders face. Learn about the various options and how to evaluate what is best for your school.
We will cover:
– Funding structure and options available
– Pros and cons to various financing
– Balancing needs versus wants for your facility
– Facing budget realities
– Facilities planning best practices
Speaker:
Stuart Ellis, President & CEO, Charter School Capital
REGISTER NOW.

Over the next few weeks, our team at Charter School Capital is following the California Charter School Association’s (CCSA) campaign to provide information that dispels the myths and misinformation about charter schools. And, let’s face it, there are a lot of myths out there about charter schools.
One of the biggest myths: charter schools aren’t public schools. Simply not true. Charter schools are:

Tuition-free and open to all students
Non-sectarian, and do not discriminate on any basis
Publicly funded by local, state, and federal tax dollars based on enrollment, like other public schools
Held accountable to state and federal academic standards

Along with being public schools, charter schools are free public schools of choice that:

Do not engage in selective admissions policies
Must accept all students, including students with disabilities and English Learners (ELs), regardless of previous academic performance
Use a process to randomly select students, oftentimes a lottery system, if there are more interested students than available seats

We hope you’ll join the team at Charter School Capital in supporting CCSA, California charter school advocates, and school choice advocates across the country and online via #chartertruth, to shed light on the truth about charters.
Spread the Truth!
Share on Twitter
Share on Facebook

Join us for our upcoming webinar – Building a Growth Strategy for Your Charter School on Tuesday, September 22 starting at 9:00 a.m. PST / 12:00 p.m. EST. This one hour webinar session will feature challenges schools face during various phases of growth from start-up, expansion through to a mature school as well as highlight best practices schools use to achieve success.

Register today!

Speaker: Stuart Ellis, President & CEO at Charter School Capital. Stuart is one of the founders of Charter School Capital, the nation’s leading provider of growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. The organization has provided in excess of $850 million in support of more than 500 charter schools educating 500,000 students across the country.

What you’ll learn:

Best practices related to growth strategies for charter schools and charter school replication
Charter school funding options specific to your growth stage
Lessons learned from charter school leaders

Register now.

Today the Seattle Times Editorial Board said, “The Washington Supreme Court should reconsider its ruling that the state’s charter school law is unconstitutional.”
It’s unfortunate that the state court’s ruling came days prior to the 2015-16 school year after 11 months with the court, impacting more than 1,200 students and their families. The growth of charter schools comes out of choice families are seeking for new and different ways of education for their children.
Below is the Seattle Times piece.

By Seattle Times editorial board, The Seattle Times

The state Supreme Court should heed requests to reconsider its ruling that Washington’s fledgling charter schools violate the state constitution.

The timing of the ruling – about 11 months after hearing arguments and after charter school classes commenced – was perplexing, but its repercussions are serious. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in the state’s nine charter schools, eight of which are starting their first year. In 2012, voters approved Initiative 1240 to authorize publicly funded charter schools that give higher priority to serving at-risk kids. Charters have greater flexibility to respond to students’ needs, something the traditional system does not provide or encourage enough of.

Read the full article.
Do you agree with the Seattle Times Editorial Board? What are your thoughts? Share your comments below.

In a big victory for California charter schools, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Los Angeles Unified School District was required to reevaluate the method with which they’re assigning facility space to charter schools.
According to the California Charter School Association (CCSA), who filed the initial lawsuit, “The Court’s decision affirms CCSA’s position that the district’s methodology was not legal or fair, and potentially denied classrooms to charter public school students. This ruling requires L.A. Unified to make changes to its Prop 39 process in order to ensure that its method of allocating classrooms to charter public schools is lawful.”
Legislative consultant Branche Jones said, “It’s great to see the court confirm that LAUSD has been out of compliance by not meeting its Prop 39 obligation and providing facilities for charter schools. Hopefully the district will now revise their policies.”
Read more about the ruling on the CCSA website or in this LA Times article.

Join us on Wednesday, February 18th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern for our webinar, “Building a Growth Strategy: Start-up, Growth, Maturity.”

We will cover a variety of challenges charter schools face at each stage of growth. Our speakers will outline stages of growth from start-up to expansion to maturity and highlight the challenges schools experience at each stage. Our panel of experts will offer best practices from their experiences.

REGISTER TODAY!

Speakers:

Marshall Emerson, CEO, I CAN Schools
Marshall is co-founder of I CAN Schools, overseeing seven charters and more than 2,400 students. I CAN began in 2010 and the schools have been one of the country’s most successful charter school concepts in closing the achievement gap for low-income students.
Stuart Ellis, President & CEO, Charter School Capital
Stuart is co-founder of Charter Schools Capital, the nation’s leading provider of growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. The company has provided in excess of $800 million in support of more than 450 charter schools educating 450,000 students.

You’ll learn:

Best practices for growth and replication
Funding options specific to your growth stage
Lessons learned from charter school leaders

What attendees have said:

A similar presentation was held at the 2014 National Charter Schools Conference to a standing-room only audience and was rated as a top 10 session out of 200 offered. Below is feedback received from attendees:
“It was beneficial to hear other school leaders explain how they overcame the same challenges that my school is currently facing.”
“Once I understood the different stages, I could see that our school was in expansion stage, but our organization was still making start-up stage decisions.”

REGISTER TODAY!

We’re excited to announce that American Education Properties (AEP) has acquired Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy’s (CASSA) building in a transaction worth approximately $4 million. This investment ensures that CASSA will continue to provide quality education to its 330 K-8 students, today and into the future.

CASSA opened its doors in 2005 and is supported by Mosaica Education and the school’s authorizer, Ohio Council of Community Schools (OCCS). CASSA recently earned an “A” rating and the designation of Ohio’s highest-ranked community school for value-added by Battelle for Kids.
“We are pleased to have an organization that focuses exclusively on charter schools supporting our mission,” said Debroah Mays, CASSA’s Regional Vice President. “Charter School Capital’s expertise in charter school facilities financing and the support they provide to charters across the country is invaluable and makes the collaboration even more meaningful and productive for our school and the students and families we serve.”
With the demand for charter school enrollment increasing and one million students on waiting lists nationwide, charter leaders require facilities financing options that meet their needs. Charter School Capital and AEP address the increased charter school demand for facilities and the lack of adequate facilities financing options. School leaders are able to retain control of their buildings and make modifications needed in order to expand their enrollment and academic programs. Charter School Capital facilitates all origination and sourcing, underwriting, asset administration, and property management for AEP.
“We are providing a solution to one of the pressing challenges charter schools face – access to facilities and the funds needed for them,” explained Stuart Ellis, CEO of Charter School Capital and AEP. “Charter School Capital has committed more growth capital than any other organization to support the movement and now we are able to ensure that charters have the best facilities to meet their educational goals. With an initial $500 million to invest in charter school facilities combined with our continuing growth capital programs, we are dedicated to providing charter schools access to the funding they need to thrive.”
For more information on how we can help your charter school with facilities expansion and growth capital, contact us at GrowCharters@charterschoolcapital.com.

We are so excited to learn that Mosaica Education was selected as the highest performing Education Management Organization (EMO) in Ohio, out of 41 organizations. This honor comes on the heels of Columbus Preparatory Academy, a Mosaica school, receiving a 2014 National Blue Ribbon designation by the U.S. Department of Eduaction. Columbus Preparatory Academy was recognized in the category of Exemplary High Performing Schools.
The ranking was published by Beacon Journal in a report that analyzed the overall performance of all EMOs in Ohio.
Mosaica Education is a valued partner of Charter School Capital, and has previously won awards for Columbus Preparatory Academy and Lorain Preparatory Academy. They operate over 100 schools worldwide, including 17 schools in Ohio, serving a total of 3,774 Ohio students.
“The staff at the Mosaica schools in Ohio are tremendously dedicated to building high performing academies, and that’s evidenced by the remarkable growth of the schools and academic achievements of the students,” said Cris Worrel, Charter School Capital Client Services Representative for Ohio. “We look forward to many more successful years as partners to Mosaica Education.”