SHARING OUR VALUES: TEAMWORK

At Charter School Capital, we hold each other accountable to core company values as the driving force and foundation of what we do. These values are our guiding principles as we work together to more effectively support the growth and development of our charter school partners. And, as a result, Charter School Capital is a proven catalyst for charter school growth. In CSC’s ten years, we very proud to say that we’ve helped finance the education of more than 800,000 students in over 600 charter schools across the United States.
We measure everything we do by these core values:
• Best-in-Class
• Empowerment
• Innovation
• Teamwork
• Accountability
In this blog series, we wanted to spotlight how all of us at CSC work to exemplify these core values. For this, the third post of the series, we’ll dive deeper into what teamwork means to us and how we embody and reflect this goal both internally and what that means for our charter school partners.
Teamwork seems to be at the core of everything we do here at CSC. Each team relies on each other to support our charter school partners in their success.

A culture of teamwork

To get some expert insight into how we strive to live up to the value of teamwork, I was pleased to sit down with Marci Phee, Client Services Director here at Charter School Capital. Once a school comes on board with us, Marci’s team ensures that the funding is working for the school in the way that they want it to; that they’re getting their funding, assistance, and support on time; and that our team is available to help the school with whatever needs they may have.
Marci – selected by CSC leadership as the embodiment of the value of teamwork here at CSC – has been with Charter School Capital for three years, and has been key in building our team culture. One of her early missions was to help her team build a deep but practical understanding of the value gained from partnering with other teams across the organization and how working as a team would help us better achieve our goals.
Sitting down with Marci, I was curious to know:
• How one goes about building a high-performing team
• How teamwork helps us directly support our clients
• How being passionate about our mission plays into our value of teamwork
• What actionable things that we do to support teamwork

A shared vision

I began our conversation by asking Marci how the team stays on course to do what is in the best interest of the company and our schools. And her immediate response was all about the shared vision – or the collective understanding of the direction we’re all headed—and it’s all about how we serve our customers.
“For our team to work well together, the first step is for everyone to understand where we’re all going. That means when we bring a school on board and commit to funding that school, we’re all in. Everyone knows that the goal is not just to deliver funding, it’s to deliver what each school needs or wants, whether that is a renovated gym or some operational help to get through the end of the school year.
When we commit and say, ‘yes, we’ll provide that funding,’ what we’re really saying is, ‘yes, we will get you where you want to go.’ And every member of our team—whether it’s underwriting or finance or the executives or the account managers—knows what the end goal is. That’s where we’re going. A common goal makes it much easier to work together as a team.”

A dedicated team

One of the things I’ve come to understand in my few months here at CSC– that perhaps makes us a bit different than others in our industry – is the comprehensive team of finance professionals we put in place to work with every single one of our school partners. This knowledgeable, dedicated team works together with our schools to find sustainable solutions to ensure that they succeed in the near term and as they grow. I wanted to ask Marci to clarify how that team is assembled and how they create the framework that helps them work together in the best interest of our school partners.
“Every school in our portfolio has essentially three charter school capital members who are assigned to their account and know it very well. Very, very well. There’s always a primary point of contact who will be the dedicated account manager. That is the one person you can always call. That’s just part of a core, client-facing team that includes the account manager, a financial analyst, and an underwriter. If something comes up and the school needs a different financing option, or they have questions regarding corporate structure or education, they know that their team will support them. This is the case throughout the life of our clients, even as their financial needs change.”

The three C’s

Marci shares, more specifically, how this multi-faceted team structure works so effectively. It comes down to three words: Cooperation, Collaboration, and Communication – the three C’s.
“Because there’s an assigned team that is responsible for knowing the school, it just makes it easier to cooperate. Everyone knows who their partner is cross-functionally. And, from a collaboration standpoint, everybody has the same goal and everybody’s willing to help and have open lines of communication. People here show up to meetings, are responsive to emails, have informal text messages, just walk by and say, ‘Hey, I need your help.’ We share at water cooler conversations, joint coffee runs, and chats riding up in the elevator—and all of that pieces together to deliver the best product in partnership to the school.”

Grit, Creativity, Partnership

Marci has built a high-performing team of people who are dedicated, hard-working, and are master collaborators. I wanted to know what characteristics she looks for when building a team, and what qualities she thinks makes a great team player.
And, her first, out-of-the-gate response was “Grit. It’s that ‘never die’ mentality. There has to be a solution. There has to be a way. There’s always a way. I need that creativity and creative problem solving in each of my team members.”
This immediately reminded me of our interview with John Caughie on the value of innovation here at CSC and how it’s one of the reasons we’re different. We see solutions where other financial institutions may see red flags. We pride ourselves on supporting team members to find those innovative, creative solutions our schools need to be successful and sustainable.
And, in addition to grit and creativity, Marci was clear that having an “inclination towards partnership” was also key. I asked her to explain what she meant by that.
“It’s really important that our dedicated account managers partner with the school’s business, with the school’s goals. If I stop an account manager in the hallway and ask, ‘What is the objective for X, Y, Z charter school for the year?’ they need to be able to articulate exactly what it is. This is not about money, this is about partnering with the school to understand what they’re trying to achieve. And then it’s our job to provide the tools and resources to help them get there. But you can only do that through a true partnership. You have to establish trust and work as a team, with the client. So, I need that inclination towards partnership to really stand alongside our school leaders and decision makers and get them where they want to go, day in and day out.

It’s all about the students

A shared vision, a dedicated team of professionals, and student focus are all vital to our embodiment of the teamwork value. But all that would mean nothing if we didn’t truly love partnering with our schools and the students they’re educating.
Marci explains, “In the three years I’ve done this, our efforts have always tied to a student outcome in some way. When you understand student success as an organization, and your team understands that student success is the heartbeat of our organization, and we partner with the school and they understand how we feel about student success, and everybody’s on the same page, it’s just more efficient. There’s a lot more trust, and honestly, it’s a lot more fun!
One of our favorite things to do is to go to the school. You are just very happy to see the client and it’s even better when you get to tour the schools and meet the students and see what our funding has done to help them move forward. Or you’re standing there with the school leaders on a big plot of land and they’re saying ‘This is going to be a performing arts center,’ you get to stand there with them and say, ‘yeah, that’s going to be so great.’”

Teamwork does make the dream work

So, it’s clear that we have a mission-driven dedicated team, who cooperate, collaborate, and communicate, but I must conclude this post with the one single thing that is the heart and soul of everything we do—the students.
“One of our driving metrics of students served. I haven’t encountered a single school relationship where the ask for the funding or the need for the funding was not somehow tied to better serving their existing students or to serve more students in the community. Our focus is always on the needs of the school and we will adjust our product based on that need—and that need is always tied to a student. Always.” shares Marci.
What I’ve really taken away from my energizing chat with Marci, is that teamwork really does make the dream work here. I know, such a cliché. But it’s true! Because of our internal investment in teamwork and a shared vision – where we always have the students at the forefront – we’re able to support schools when and how they need it, and work as a team with charter school leaders to make their dreams for their schools happen.

Conclusion

The positivity and chemistry of the entire CSC team is both motivational and inspirational. I love that I have the honor to be part – even a small one – of such a mission-driven, team-focused group of professionals.

Charter School Capital’s Values: Empowerment

Sharing our Values

At Charter School Capital, we hold each other accountable to core company values as the driving force and foundation of what we do. These values are our guiding principles as we work together to more effectively support the growth and development of our charter school partners. And, as a result, Charter School Capital is a proven catalyst for charter school growth. In CSC’s ten years, we very proud to say that we’ve helped finance the education of more than 800,000 students in over 600 charter schools across the United States.
We measure everything we do by these core values:

• Best-in-Class
• Empowerment
• Innovation
• Teamwork
• Accountability

In this blog series, we wanted to spotlight how all of us at CSC work to exemplify these core values. For this, the second post of the series, we’ll dive deeper into what empowerment means to us and how we embody and reflect this goal both internally and with our charter school partners.
After over one month here as a member of the Charter School Capital team, it’s already become clear to me—and quite refreshing—that our values are, indeed, a way of life here. They’re simply woven into the fabric of daily life at the office. It’s so refreshing to be a part of such a healthy non-siloed environment where there’s a shared passion and mission infusing every action.  The claps and cheers reverberate through our all-hands meeting as our President and CEO (co-founder), Stuart Ellis shares our goal to reach one million students served this year.

Empowered as Individuals

To get some expert insight into how we strive to live up to the value of Empowerment, I sat down with Corey Brock, Senior Paralegal for Charter School Capital (CSC). Corey has been with Charter School Capital for five years so has seen our rapid growth and been instrumental in being a part of our cultural development. He was selected by CSC leadership as the embodiment of the Empowerment value here at CSC, so I was really looking forward to getting to know him better—and learn why he was chosen as our representative for this value. And, after meeting with him, as it did with Nancy Edmiston in our Best-In-Class values post, it became clear.
When I sat down with Corey, I really wanted to understand what he thinks CSC means when we talk about empowerment—and how our company not only empowers its employees to be their best, but how we empower the schools we work with to achieve and even exceed their goals.
So, I began by simply asking how he feels he’s empowered here, in his own job, at Charter School Capital. “I’m allowed by the leadership members that I work with to constantly be thinking outside the box and find creative solutions … if you see something that needs doing, you just go do it. And then if you see a need that we have, by all means, take it, run with it and make it your own. Empowerment here actually equals creativity and flexibility,” Corey explained.
He recognizes that this spirit of empowerment has a broad effect on the entire CSC team as he seen coworker after coworker “not only growing their careers but growing as people.” He’s seen so many people move up in the organization because, in large part, they’re empowered to “think outside the box they were put in.”

“Empowerment here actually equals creativity and flexibility.” ~Corey Brock

Empowered to Face Challenges

I asked Corey how he felt CSC’s spirit of empowerment plays a part in helping employees overcome any challenges they may face. He was unhesitant in his response. “The leadership has empowered me to take on challenges, and this shows me that they trust my work and that, in turn, fosters trust. They don’t give you work you can’t handle—and there’s no fail here. Yes, there are times that maybe things didn’t go as planned, but the thing that I’ve always been impressed with is, when that happens, you’re not viewed as though you’ve failed. It’s like, OK, this is an opportunity to grow, and then … how do we move on from here?”
“I’m also empowered to speak up. I feel more empowered to raise my hand when I see something going off the rails or something’s just not working. This is one of the few places that I’ve ever worked at that I actually have a voice.”

Empowering Charter Schools

After feeling inspired and ready to conquer the world based on Corey’s explanations of how our leaders empower employees here to be creative and innovative without fear, I really wanted to understand how he thinks all of this translates to our customers. How do we empower our charter school partners in the same way we inspire that spirit internally?

“I’m so comfortable with everyone I work with, especially leadership, and I feel like that comes from the empowerment that they have given to me. The spirit of CSC is that whatever you do, whatever your role is, whatever you are brought in to do you, you are part of the success. I truly feel that they have my back, and that is extremely inspiring.” ~Corey Brock

“One of our mottos is ‘We’re here to help,’ and we are.  Our schools are not static, cookie-cutter organizations. They have a plan or a mission, and sometimes they need a little assistance reaching their goals. We’re empowered to help them to do that. We as a company, and we as employees have to be able to be as creative and flexible as possible to meet their specific needs at specific times, help them improve their financial health, or just help them grow … and we empower our schools by giving them the stability that they may need,” shares Corey.
“Our founders and employees are incredibly passionate about charter schools.  I’m excited to be a part of a mission-driven company where everybody really is here to support the birth of these charter schools and help them be successful.”
He goes on to explain that we partner with our schools to balance each other’s’ strengths. “We’re saying, you don’t need to worry about x, y, and z. You can focus on what you’re really trying to accomplish. Let us worry about this part of for you.” To me, that feels empowering. By doing what we do best, we enable school leaders to focus on their true goals—educating students.

Conclusion

I feel like the best leaders I’ve ever had were those who saw my strengths and enabled me to find and implement creative, innovative solutions to challenges without fear of failure. And what I’ve learned from Corey, is Charter School Capital understands that by empowering each team member in this way, we’re ultimately empowering the success and growth of the charter schools we serve—and the charter movement as a whole. These words, these values, are not just lip service here at CSC, “Words like best-in-class, and empowerment … they are in our daily, our hourly lexicon,” says Corey. “They are just part of our culture now.”
 

SHARING OUR VALUES

At Charter School Capital, we hold each other accountable to core company values as the driving force and foundation of what we do. These values are our guiding principles as we work together to more effectively support the growth and development of our charter school partners. And, as a result, Charter School Capital is a proven catalyst for charter school growth. In CSC’s ten years, we are very proud to say that we’ve helped finance the education of more than 800,000 students in over 600 charter schools across the United States.
We measure everything we do by these core values:

• Best-in-Class
• Empowerment
• Innovation
• Teamwork
• Accountability

In this blog series, we wanted to spotlight how all of us at CSC work to exemplify these core values. For this, the first post of the series, we’ll dive deeper into what best-in-class means to us and how we strive to meet such an aspirational goal.
As the newest member of the Charter School Capital team, it’s already become clear to me—and quite refreshing—that best-in-class is indeed a way of life here. I see it in the way everyone interacts with each other on a daily basis, I see it in the support and encouragement I’ve received since day one – from everyone – regardless of their department, and I see it in how individuals and teams coach and enable each other to succeed by helping schools succeed in educating more and more students each day.

BEST-IN-CLASS

To get some expert insight into how we strive to be best-in-class, I sat down with Nancy Edmiston, Assistant General Counsel for Charter School Capital (CSC). Nancy was selected as the embodiment of the Best-in-Class value here at CSC, so I was really looking forward to getting to know her better—and learn why leadership had chosen her as their representative on this value. And, after meeting with her, it became clear.
Nancy has been with CSC for a little over three years now and been an integral part of CSC’s continued growth and the development of the CSC corporate culture.  Because it’s such a lofty subject, we broke down our discussion into several topics that embody “best-in-class” attributes and how CSC sets about living up to those values.
We deliver. According to Nancy, what’s best for our clients is for us to develop and deliver a dependable and reliable financing product to our customer. “There’s a lot of pride in ownership in the delivery of such a high-quality product,” she said.
“Best in class for us is being able to provide products that are tailored to serve the needs of charter schools and the teachers out there who are providing educations to all of their students. And there’s a certain reliability when you’re best in class, you’re accountable, you empower your employees both individually and as a team to develop it all—and in the end, it benefits the customer.”
For all of at CSC, best-in-class means “when our clients succeed, we succeed.” But I wanted to get Nancy’s take…
“We put our schools’ success at the forefront, working with them beyond just helping them finance their growth or facility. We help them when things might get tough as well and help figure out why it is that everything’s upside down, and what we have to do to right the ship again to get them back on course. We’re providing a lot of value-added guidance, services and advice to help right those upside-down schools. Because their success is our success.
And, as a function of us having provided financing, we’ve actually helped a lot of schools become stronger over the long run. Because, as we’re providing finances and we’re seeing some early signals that there may be problems on the horizons, we can start proactively working with them to help. We can help them better understand that they may need to trim expenses so that they’re not in the red or even introduce them to back office providers who might be able to provide a service that would help them with their bookkeeping and other administrative support.
Being best in class means continually asking, are you best at serving the needs of your client? Does this help our client? Are we beneficially serving the charter school movement and the charter schools that we work with? Because our mission is to help the charter schools—and be able to deliver all of the products and provide services that fulfill the needs of the charter school movement, as a whole,” says Nancy.

CONCLUSION

After my inspiring chat with Nancy Edmiston, I can easily say that I was even more enthusiastic about being a part of the CSC team. And, I was able to glean the heart of CSC’s motivation behind achieving this aspirational “best-in-class” goal: Everything we do at Charter School Capital is in service to the mission, in service to our clients, and service to the charter school movement.