The team at Charter School Capital is hosting our next webinar on charter school growth strategy, featuring the stages of growth from start-up to expansion on to a mature school. There’s great information for everyone involved in the planning and operations of charter schools. Marshall Emerson, CEO and Co-founder at I CAN Schools will join Stuart Ellis, our President and CEO to walk through the stages of growth and the key issues at each stage including charter school funding, operations, facilities, and other key topics.
There are still spaces available for this informative webinar. Register today!
Category: Charter School Events
Zalika Gardner, co-founder of KairosPDX and Director of Learning for the Early Learning Center, spoke on April 12th at TEDx Portland 2014 conference. In December 2013, KairosPDX became the first unanimously-approved charter school in Portland, Oregon; a feat made possible in part thanks to a letter of intent supplied by Charter School Capital guaranteeing funding support. Charter School Capital co-founder and CEO Stuart Ellis sits on the KairosPDX board.
Listening. It’s a basic concept in education. Students listen to their teachers, and learn valuable lessons that will serve them as they grow to be adults.
But what can teachers learn when they listen to students?
Zalika Gardner’s speech at TEDx Portland served not as a platform to present a radical new idea, but rather to inspire new thought about a very old one: listening, and how our own internal barriers often prevent us from doing it effectively.
Gardner notes that, of all the populations in the world, the one group that always stands at the ready to make a difference, to envision a better future, is our children. Children are not yet shaped and defined by a lifetime of experiences; they don’t accept things for being ‘the way they are.’ Instead, they have the unique ability to see what could be over what is, and every adult – teachers, parents, everyone – has the responsibility to encourage and empower children to believe in themselves and their own thoughts and ideas.
However, we often do not do that. Without even knowing it, each of us often judges what another has to say before we even hear it. The certainties that exist in our own minds prevent us from truly listening, especially to children who we view not as potential teachers but as those needing to be taught.
The three barriers to listening that Gardner identified are:
- Assumption – I know your type. I have a label, and I’m not afraid to use it.
- Arrogance – I have already decided that what you have to say is irrelevant.
- Fear – I’m afraid that listening to you may require something of me. I may feel guilty or judged, or your experience may challenge mine. I see a risk in listening, and so I won’t.
The risk we face when we don’t listen isn’t just to ourselves either. Not only do we isolate ourselves from new thoughts and ideas, we also dismiss and diminish the person we refuse to hear. Children are particularly susceptible to feelings of rejection and often lose faith in their own ideas as a result of not being heard.
Gardner closed her speech with a story, recounting how she asked her first grade class the question, “What’s in charge out there?” and one student replied “Imagination. Because if you can’t imagine it, it’s very hard to believe in it.” Ms. Gardner uses this insight to challenge us then to imagine a world where we all listened differently, a world where every child knew that they mattered, that they were important, and that their voice was heard.
What would that world be like?
The full video of Ms. Gardner’s speech can be found here: http://new.livestream.com/tedx/TEDxPortland2014/videos/47879614
Additional speeches from TEDx Portland can be found here: http://new.livestream.com/tedx/TEDxPortland2014
Charter School Capital is getting ready to head to San Jose for the 21st Annual California Charter Schools Conference. This year, we’re proud to support the conference as the Platinum Sponsor, one of the lead sponsors of the conference.
This year’s focus on innovation couldn’t be more appropriate, especially with continued growth in charter schools across the country – 13 percent according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools‘ recent report. There are now approximately 6,400 public charter schools with more than 2.5 million students across the country, with California charter schools at the forefront of this growth and innovation.
Our team will be heading to San Jose the first week in March and we hope to see you at the conference. Stop by and say “hi” at Booth #625 and ask us how we can help fund your charter school.
One of our team members will be happy to meet with you or feel free to schedule a meeting in advance of the conference with us. We’ll also be providing additional information related to the conference, so check back in the coming days and weeks leading up to the conference the first week in March. Or, simply subscribe to our blog.
We look forward to seeing you at the conference!
In celebration of National School Choice Week, we want to hear your stories! How has school choice helped your education? How have charter schools brought value to your community? If you’ve already shared your story, thank you. If you experienced technical issues, please try re-submitting your story again by clicking on the link below.
It’s easy to share your story. Click here and share. You might even win a Kindle Fire HD.
https://www.facebook.com/CharterSchoolCapital/app_1448834632002022
For more ongoing information about charter schools, charter school funding and other related industry news, sign-up for our blog.
Share What School Choice Means To You
In honor of National School Choice Week (Jan. 26 – Feb. 1, 2014), Charter School Capital wants you to share what school choice means to you and your community.
Open now, the “What Does School Choice Mean to You” contest is accessible on Charter School Capital’s Facebook page. Students, parents, educators, and supporters from the community all are encouraged to share their stories about how charters and choice have impacted their families and lives. As a bonus, everyone who shares a story is automatically entered to win a free Kindle Fire HD.
School Choice has become a powerful movement during the past decade. Charter schools today are positively impacting communities across the nation – increasing educational opportunities and driving up academic performance. A 2012 study by the Florida Department of Education shows that charter school students are outperforming their traditional public school counterparts on almost all benchmarks. In California, underserved or disadvantaged students who would have been left behind in their education have now received their degrees thanks to charters focused on the goal of getting everyone to the finish line.
Freedom to choose the best educational environment for yourself or your children has never been so important. In this rapidly changing digital world, flexibility and innovation have become cornerstones to success. Charter School Capital understands that, and that is why we are proud to be the nation’s leading working capital and facilities funding source for charter schools in the U.S.
Charter School Capital funds more than 400 charter schools serving 400,000 students from California to North Carolina, Ohio to Arizona. That is why we want to hear from you. Coast-to-coast, school choice is making a positive difference in education and we want to hear those stories. Share yours with us today, and then share it with your friends.
You can share your story and enter to win the Kindle Fire HD here. (Full link below) Also, be sure to keep your eyes on the Charter School Capital blog. We’ll be taking excerpts from your stories to share with our readers. We might just share yours!
https://www.facebook.com/CharterSchoolCapital/app_1448834632002022
Planning, locating and securing facilities is challenging for most charter schools, as Arizona College Prep Academy in Tucson learned through experience. The charter school recently held a grand opening celebration of it’s new facility that now accommodates classes and extra-curricular activities for nearly 125 students with room to grow.
Arizona College Prep Academy opened originally in 1997 as an affiliate to AmeriSchools network and subsequently became an independent charter school in 2012. Growing and in need of a new facility, the charter school’s administrators were faced with unexpected challenges. Banks would not provide the charter school facilities financing because they viewed Arizona College Prep Academy as a new school and therefore high risk. Likewise, they were ineligible for start-up funds because they were a pre-established charter school transfer. In an effort to find resources they desperately needed, school officials contacted several third-party organizations. However, none came through. Enter Charter School Capital, the only organization with ability, knowledge and desire to help.
“We couldn’t have even looked at a building like this without Charter School Capital,” explained Freddy Mendoza, assistant principal and co-founder at Arizona College Prep Academy. “They made deals available to us that wouldn’t have been otherwise. Once the deal was made, they were critical in helping us understand what we needed to do. Their team made it easy for us.”
Charter School Capital provided the technical commercial real-estate knowledge and assistance in addition to the facilities financing necessary to purchase the property and then lease the property back to the charter school. Charter School Capital will retain ownership of the property, alleviating the need for the school to spend lots of time focused on building repairs and maintenance and instead focus on their mission – educating students.
“It’s rewarding to know that Arizona College Prep Academy stayed on mission and we were able to help them find a facility that matched their goals,” said Stuart Ellis, president and CEO of Charter School Capital. “The charter school is now in a new space that matches their educational mission and culture, providing stability for college-bound students for years to come.”
Students, parents, teachers, and the Tucson community are excited. The new building is perfect for the charter school’s needs and gives them room for continued growth. Last week the community gathered to celebrate the opening of Arizona College Prep Academy’s new facility. Alumni, educators, dignitaries, community representatives, students, family, and friends of the charter school joined together to recognize the milestone and mark the building as their own.
Alumni drew outlines of their hands and signed their names along a wall mural to support the strong future for Arizona College Prep Academy and its students. Olympic Gold Medalist, Chrissy Pernham was on hand to share her thoughts about the importance of education and perseverance. The charter school has a bright future with a great new space that will support them as they grow.
Congratulations, Arizona College Prep Academy. The Charter School Capital team wishes you all the best.
The Charter School Capital team attended the 2013 National Charter School Conference in Washington, D.C. last week where we met great people in the charter school movement.
At the conference, Charter School Capital was one of the lead sponsors and hosted an engaging breakout session panel discussion with several knowledgable charter school leaders – Marshall Emerson, Manny Rivera and Mike Connelley. We’ve captured a few of their key points below.
Start-up schools and staffing: “Find humble, hungry and smart people…It’s not about the business plan. It’s about getting the entire team on the same page…everyone right down to the crossing guards should be able to talk about the school the same way the CEO does.” – Marshall Emerson, CEO & Co-founder of ICAN Schools
School culture: “You have to foster a great culture to keep staff. Traditional public schools usually pay more, and without the right culture many teachers will move to those schools.” – Manny Rivera, CEO & Founder of Believe 2 Achieve International
Future growth: “As the organization grows, the leader’s job becomes to hire, retain and manage the people who do the job that you used to do…you’re no longer ‘playing man-to-man,’ you’re now ‘playing zone coverage….’ Your biggest question is no longer ‘will I live to fight another day?’ It becomes ‘what do you want to be as you grow-up?’” – Michael Connelly, CEO of Mosaica Education
Learn more about Building a Growth Strategy, by viewing the presentation deck. And be on the lookout for more great advice and answers to the audience’s questions in the coming weeks. We plan to keep this discussion going and hope you will too by contacting a member of our team to learn more. 877-272-1001 or add a comment to this post.
The Charter School Capital team’s bags are packed and we are heading to DC for the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference. We’re proud to be sponsoring this year’s conference as an Operations Strand Sponsor and are looking forward to a lively panel discussion while there.
On Monday, July 1st, we will share the stage with three charter school leaders in our breakout session, Building a Growth Strategy. Our panelists will map out the three stages of charter school growth from start-up and expansion to sustainability and efficiency. This in-depth discussion will include the challenges charter schools face at each stage, how these organizations overcame those challenges, and best practices to avoid pitfalls and achieve success.
Our distinguished panelists includes:
- Michael Connelly, CEO, Mosaica Education
- Marshall Emerson, CEO and Co-founder, ICAN Schools
- Manny Rivera, CEO, Believe to Achieve
- Stuart Ellis, CEO and Co-founder, Charter School Capital
Following our breakout session Monday morning, we will be sharing the presentation on our blog. If you haven’t signed up for our blog yet, please be sure to do so here. We will also be sharing updates, photos, and other breakout session recaps.
For more information about the conference, please click here. If you are attending the conference and interested in checking out some of the local attractions, you can find more information at the DC Convention Center page dedicated to the National Charter School Conference.