Leadership Intensive

Participants will review “high stakes” state and federal accountability systems. The session includes some hands-on activities with ways to use multiple data sources to identify and address achievement challenges with a manageable action plan. Participants will also discuss charter renewal strategies and identify key steps to ensure preparation at all stages of school operations.

After a brief overview of a typical charter school governing board’s origins and evolution, this presentation quickly moves into the finer points of successful charter school governance, including the major roles the governing board is expected to fulfill in its oversight capacity (e.g., delineating roles and responsibilities of school board members and staff, monitoring school fiscal performance, ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, implementing and developing key documents, policies, and procedures, etc.).

Whether participants serve traditional, full-time independent study programs or work for schools looking to open an independent study “sidecar” (or blended instructional program), this presentation will provide participants with the fundamentals and major areas of compliance for independent study and nonclassroom-based programs.

Given the myriad challenges charter schools face in identifying satisfactory facilities, charters often find it difficult to find school sites that reflect their overall missions and instructional goals. This presentation will address these challenges, enabling participants to reach their schools’ facilities objectives. Topics include facilities funding programs, Prop 39, and more.

These presentations describe how charter schools “fit” into both federal and state education laws. They also alert participants to the numerous legal land mines that have ensnared some charter schools and provide participants with practical guidelines for determining how to identify and prevent legal challenges, when to seek consultation, and when to call a lawyer.

Preparing for charter renewal can be stressful. CSDC charter school experts provide an integrated way to understand the rules and prepare for this important process. In this session, participants will work with veteran leaders to discuss renewal tracks, verifiable data, verified data sources, Dashboard indicators, Dashboard Alternative Status Schools (DASS), and more. Participants will also learn how AB 1505 impacted the charter renewal process and understand on what grounds an authorizer may deny a charter renewal.

Charter school authorizers (school districts and county offices of education) are responsible for approving a school’s charter and then monitoring the school until the charter expires. Authorizers are also the entities that may renew a school’s charter. Participants will learn and discuss questions, examine their existing relationships with their school’s authorizer, learn how to have and maintain useful contacts with an authorizer, and gain clarity on the expectations for facilities, operations, and monitoring clearly between their school and authorizer.

LI offers a condensed set of presentations that highlight key points from CSDC’s comprehensive 60+ hour Charter Business Officer (CBO) Training program, the Charter School Financial Leadership session helps participants assess their personal grasp of the complex financial management landscape and how to develop a financial leadership strategy that maximizes limited financial resources to support quality instruction. The session reviews key funding programs, budget development and oversight strategies, cash flow management, and how to establish and manage cost-effective back-office business functions.