An Afton Partners Blog
One key component of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) focuses on fiscal transparency and school-level financial reporting. This shift from current reporting practices requires states and districts to provide per-pupil expenditures of federal, state, and local funds for each individual school. Although the US Department of Education has delayed the effective date of ESSA… Continued
In a small suburban district outside of Chicago, the city of North Chicago is proving how public school districts can offer choice to families in a fiscally responsible way. North Chicago Community Unit School District 187 serves over 3,500 students, 88% of whom are eligible for free and reduced lunch, 27% of whom are English… Continued
Over the past decade, the demand has grown for high-performing public charter schools in cities across the country. However, one hurdle charter schools face to meet the demand for their schools is financing and managing facilities. Afton Partners spoke to the Chief Financial Officers at two high-performing charter management organizations (CMOs) – John Murphy at… Continued
Afton Partners’ Scott Milam and Katie Morrison-Reed facilitated a conversation with leading practitioners from school districts across the country on best practices to implementing and sustaining innovative personalized learning models at iNACOL’s 2015 Blended and Online Learning Symposium in Orlando, Florida. Through Afton’s work with school districts from coast-to-coast, the team recognized unique innovations happening… Continued
Charter school authorizers seek to ensure the quality of our nation’s public charter schools. Key to ensuring quality is having robust measures for accountability—academic, governance and financial. This work is of heightened importance given the Trump administration’s focus on expansion of school choice… Continued
Evaluating Financial Policies and Processes to Support District-wide Personalized Learning Initiatives – Due to advances in technology and promising early results, leaders in education are increasingly attracted to personalized learning models as they seek to meet the needs of students… Continued
Transitions in Finance Leadership Can Be Challenging. Here Are Some Ideas. – At any organization, unplanned changes in financial leadership create knowledge gaps that take time to fill. No less is this true at charter management organizations or public school districts. In particular, many CMOs are relatively small organizations with limited finance capacity other than the role of the CFO… Continued