Budget for Your Growth Stage

It can be helpful to think about charter school growth as having three main stages: start-up, growth, and sustainable maturity Although these stages—especially the start-up stage—can face distinct budgeting challenges, there are some challenges that can course through all stages of growth.

Growth Stages Chart

Budgeting for Start-Up Schools: Overview

The start-up stage includes the first steps required to form a charter school: getting your charter approved, enrolling kids, hiring staff and teachers, launching, and running your school until 10 – 25% of your target enrollment has been achieved. From most perspectives—marketing, operational and financial—this can be the most challenging and stressful stage for charter school leaders.

The start-up stage can be focused on:

  1. Building a strong foundation for your school’s budget
  2. Staying flexible while anticipating multiple outcomes
  3. Creating an inclusive, transparent budgeting process that involves all key stakeholders

 

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Budgeting for Start-Up Schools: Quick Overview

Schools in the growth stage can experience drastic changes. In the growth stage, schools are typically within 25 – 90% of target enrollment—a huge range. Depending on the model of your charter, years 3 – 5 can involve expansive growth. As enrollment stabilizes, you’ll become more flexible in your operations as revenue becomes more predictable.

 

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