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Using Your Charter School Finance Committee for Impact and Sustainability

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Charter Schools, Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability, Leadership Development.

At Afton Partners, we advise our charter school partners to follow the framework of the “5 Cs” when developing and evolving their organization’s financial governance. The “5 Cs”– Charge, Composition, Content, Collaboration, and Cadence– provide a roadmap for cultivating strategic thinking and effective decision-making with your board, all meant to elevate and sustain what’s working in your schools.

The 5 Cs of Charter School Financial Governance

The 5 Cs of school financial governance are arranged in a line.

Charge: Who is responsible for the financial decision-making process for charter schools?

To ensure a seamless sharing of responsibility, it’s an important first step to define everyone’s roles clearly. For instance, the leadership team is primarily responsible for the daily leadership and execution of the priorities set in collaboration with the Board. The Board provides oversight and accountability and ensures fidelity to the plan, including the financial plan. Blurred lines can lead to the co-managing of the budget–not an optimally effective or desirable approach. On the other hand, administrators should feel supported and not solely responsible for the organization’s financial strategy and health. Everyone has an equally important and distinct role in the stewardship of the school’s financial resources.

Setting shared expectations– with an understanding that roles will grow and evolve as the school network grows– builds trust and lessens confusion around how decisions are made and who will execute which pieces.

For example, when it comes to financial decision-making, the school board finance committee serves as a consultant, ambassador, and governing body. The CFO has the important role of collaborator, content creator, and guide to strategic decision-making. And, contrary to what some may believe, the CEO has an important role in ensuring a strong board composition, board engagement and collaboration, and guide in strategic decision-making alongside the finance committee.

Composition: Who should be on a charter school finance committee?

A charter school board finance committee carries out the principal aspects of the board’s financial duties. They set fiscal policies and expectations, continually assess the financial health and direction of the school or network, and make strategic financial decisions in alignment with the broader strategic plan.

To carry out these duties, a strong board finance committee should consist of diverse professional backgrounds and skills, including business strategy and operations; banking; fiscal planning, management, and analysis; and real estate. Board members leverage their expertise and connections in their respective areas to strengthen and sustain the school or network’s financial standing.

In our practice, we find that taking care to build and sustain your board’s financial skillsets and engagement translates to high impact.

Content: What information is important for effective financial governance?

The Finance Committee should have the materials and data needed to make decisions that support long-term sustainability and align the budget to the overall priorities. Examples include:

  • Year-to-date financial statements, compared to budget
  • Long-term financial projections
  • Cash flow monitoring
  • Current key performance indicators and up-to-date financial reporting on those metrics
  • Metrics on debt compliance and authorizer standards

With this information, the committee can then develop or revise standard metrics criteria across key performance areas (e.g., cash, enrollment, fundraising, net assets, etc.) and decide on targets. Part of each meeting should be devoted to evaluating progress towards the targets.

To mitigate challenges toward those goals, the committee should also monitor the organizational risks related to financial planning and decision-making.

The table details types of risks charter school finance committees encounter and examples of those risks.
Example categories that can be adapted to suit your school context, as each will affect financial position and forecast.

Collaboration: How should finance committee members work together?

First and foremost, the ability to collaborate well requires everyone to understand their roles regarding the organization’s financial management. Leveraging their various skill sets, committee members work together to build ongoing conversations with one another, the CEO, the CFO, and the full board. Engaging each member’s background and insights facilitates healthy discussion, leading to actionable strategic plans and informed decision-making. Effective finance committees should also commit to making adequate time for the work at hand, earning one another’s trust, and coming prepared to fully engage.

For best results, CFOs and Finance Committee Chairs should plan to work together one-on-one in advance of committee meetings. This ensures that the right priorities and information are presented to the group for productive discussion and strategic decision-making. Working in close consultation with the CEO, this trio provides leadership for the larger board to consider academic investments with respect to financial guardrails. Especially amid complexity during the budget cycle, their collaboration with one another and the meaningful incorporation of their respective vantage points is critical to impact and sustainability.

Cadence: What is an effective meeting plan for a finance committee?

Finance committees should meet regularly, with an eye toward the seasonal “arc of the year”.

A sequenced meeting calendar notifies the board of decision-making timelines. It also mitigates the risk of smaller–but no less important–agenda items getting crowded out by a waterfall of more discussion-heavy priorities.

Prescheduling board meetings for the year can aid in the planning process for each meeting and provide predictability for committee members. Prescheduling also allows the committee to allocate the proper amount of time to items requiring a deep dive, ensuring that multiple major discussions or approvals do not end up on the same agenda.

Putting Effective Financial Governance in Action

Intentional financial governance increases impact and improves sustainability. If you don’t have an engaged, effective finance committee, it’s not too late to make it happen. Use the 5 Cs to help you determine where to invest your time. Want more hands-on support? Reach out to our team!

As the national leader in charter school financial planning services, we understand the unique challenges charter management organizations commonly face. We have partnered with more than 80 networks of all sizes, from single-site operators just getting started to the largest charter school organizations in the country. Our services for charter schools build finance capacity, strengthen financial sustainability inform school resource allocation, and strategically inform organizational decision-making on growth, facility affordability, debt financings, mergers, and restructurings. To learn more, contact Fulton Breen.

*Check out this article.

Financial Stewardship in a Time of Elevated Pressures

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Charter Schools, Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability.

We believe effective financial stewardship consists of three major pillars:

  • Enacting your mission through resource allocation,
  • Protecting your money with controls and governance, and
  • Making good resource decisions that can be sustained and leveraged toward achieving your desired long-term impact.

Leaning into your strategic fiscal oversight and operations is in tune with the moment – many public schools face elevated pressures related to enrollment uncertainty, ESSER funding expiration, student needs, and talent, all of which have significant financial implications. Further, charter schools have disproportionately complex funding and financial reporting and overarching public policy circumstances. Getting rigorous with your financial stewardship can be an enabler to navigating those waters, fending off sustainability problems and threats to your mission.

So, let’s unpack some practical ways to be more rigorous in your financial oversight…

Reflect the Mission: To do this well requires a thoughtful perspective on your instructional and operational priorities. Each year, the budget should highlight specific investments that are intended to make progress toward the school’s goals and achievement of its mission while sustaining a strong foundation. Given that personnel is likely to be your biggest investment, are proposed annual adjustments in talent aligned to your priorities for the year and the long-term mission? Which schools and grade levels require particular intervention, and how is that reflected in the budget?

Protecting Money Through Controls and Governance: The board, CEO, and CFO are responsible for providing a high-quality education for your students AND ensuring good stewardship of public funds. This includes ensuring financial health and sustainability day-to-day and week-after-week, as well as preventing fraud and misfeasance. So first, we’ll give a reminder you probably don’t need: you must do everything you can to prevent a crisis. Governance, controls, reporting, and compliance build your organization’s foundation for success, and must be a recurring focus. Let’s dig into what that looks like…

First, clearly delineate which aspects of financial reporting are led by senior management and what role the board plays in overseeing the financials of the organization. The roles must evolve as your organization grows, matures, and becomes more complex. Regardless of the approach, your money and resources must be protected, so the finance department will require resources. Additionally, enacting engaged board financial governance is a critical fiscal control and an enabler of sound financial decision making. As a rule of thumb, you’ll want at least three engaged board members who are well versed in financial statements and fiscal planning. The finance committee, made up of staff and board members, should meet monthly or bi-monthly and cover a standing agenda of monthly reports on cash position, budget variance, enrollment, other dashboards, risk management, and seasonally appropriate topics.

Making impactful resource decisions: Can you identify what you need now and later to generate your desired impact? Use your student data to inform prioritization of investments at each of your schools. Balance your instructional priorities with some financial planning, checking your assumptions on operational matters like:

  • Expected growth rates in state per pupil funding and/or federal funding shifts.
  • Enrollment data by grade-level.
  • Wage increases and any changes in the cost of benefits.
  • Needs for technology, curricula, professional development, maintenance, transportation, food insurance, audit, and legal expenses.

There’s a reciprocal relationship between focusing on the present and future of your finances: your fiscal health today will determine what you’re capable of tomorrow, and today’s decisions must be based on what you hope to afford in the long-term.

As a general guideline, you should utilize at least 2-3 years of historical trends to build a 3-5 year model that reflects your cash position and conservatively forecasts costs that might arise. With all this in hand, you’ll be prepared to navigate your work of delivering high-quality education with strong fiscal stewardship.

Download Afton’s slide deck on Financial Stewardship

FOX Fellowship’s Support for Strong Charter School Management

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Financial Sustainability, Leadership Development.

Introduction

Afton’s co-founder and Managing Partner, Carrie Stewart, has been a coach for all three cohorts of the FOX Fellowship, a program for Chief Operating and Financial Officers of public charter schools around the country. A few weeks ago, we spoke with the fellowship’s co-founders, Irma Muñoz and DeRonda Williams, to hear about the intent and impact of the program. In our view, the FOX Fellowship represents an important investment in professionals who are great enablers of high-quality public education. Below we share Irma and DeRonda’s powerful perspectives on the work.

Guest Contribution: FOX Fellowship’s Support for Strong Charter School Management

Operations and finance functions are critical to the success of public school systems. While there are significant time and resources dedicated to high-quality instruction (and rightly so!), chronic underfunding in our public education systems leads to charter schools and public school districts alike being unable to fully invest in high-quality finance and operations functions. Therefore, in the charter school sector, we wanted to develop something that supported CEOs and organizations as they scale, not just in recruiting the right talent, but also in onboarding them and providing them an infrastructure of support, particularly in their first year in the roles. There are not many professional development programs for operations and finance leaders and not many networking opportunities other than Charter School Growth Fund’s CFO and COO community of practice. Outside of that, there really aren’t many opportunities for charter school finance and ops leaders to network and share strategies and tools. We also wanted to prioritize building the capacity and improving the retention of COOs and CFOs who are women and leaders of color. Charter schools serve Black and Brown children, so it is important to have the appropriate representation in our schools and in the C-suite.

Fortunately, Charter School Growth Fund recognized the need for a program and wanted to support a program like FOX. They provided funding to support our pilot in June 2022 and for subsequent cohorts. In October 2023, we kicked off our third cohort and plan to launch cohort 4 in September 2024.

Key Components of the Program

At the onset, we set very specific measures of success and committed to responding to data. One of them was around retention of leaders in their role because of the trends that we were seeing in the sector. I’m happy to say we have increased the retention rate within the organizations we’re working with. The early numbers point to retention in a leader’s role in the first year and beyond, which is rewarding and exactly why we developed this fellowship.

To plan for each cohort, we start by collecting a lot of data from the Fellows and their CEOs. We survey three times during the fellowship, beginning with a needs assessment, and tailor our offerings based on the needs of the cohort. We also do ad hoc things like focus groups if we see there is a particular need. We take the data as well as learnings from prior cohorts and embed them in the next cohort programming so that we’re responding to a defined cycle of continuous improvement.

As we were developing the fellowship program, another important thing to us was including coaching as a key component. We were fortunate to pull together a roster of top-notch, diverse coaches, many of whom have sat in the operator seat at high-performing networks. A unique aspect of our coaching is what we call the success triad (fellow, coach and CEO). The fellowship fosters a success triad, which develops a supportive environment that facilitates the work of each fellow. Coaches work with fellows on a dedicated one-on-one basis, while ensuring the deliberate and active involvement of a fellow’s CEO or Executive Director. There are three success triad touchpoints during the fellowship. We see the coaching component of the fellowship to be the linchpin of our offering and it has been very successful at helping Fellows accomplish that shift.

In terms of specific needs for the Fellows, there’s a mix of adaptive and technical needs to address. On the adaptive side, we help them clearly define roles and responsibilities, manage change, and manage up. We dedicate time at our in-person kick-off toward setting SMART goals that measure the success of the work they’re responsible for and ensure that the goals are responsive to the needs of the organization. This work often seems foundational and assumed. It really isn’t. A lot of our fellows throughout the three cohorts are spending a lot of time doing goal definition to drive change and impact throughout the fellowship and beyond. We also did a session ‘Get off the balcony and get on the dance floor.’ The programming provided strategies on how the fellows can get out of the weeds to focus more on strategy and impact. In terms of the technical side, our programming focuses on topics such as student enrollment, budgeting, facilities planning, and long-term financial sustainability. We go deep and cross-functional in each topic. For example, COOs know about enrollment and prioritize the work, but more often than not, they don’t understand the interdependencies between operations and finance or operations and the academic team.

In addition to offering programming, we share best practices, tools, and templates with our Fellows–we don’t want anyone recreating the wheel when high-quality products exist. Fellows also have access to on-demand classes that are virtual and self-paced sessions. They complement the core curriculum.

Challenges and Growth in Fellows’ Roles

COOs and CFOs are uniquely positioned to drive success within a Charter Management Organization, albeit in the format of eliminating distractions so that instructional leaders can focus on what is important, which is student achievement. We often hear that finance and operations teams sometimes don’t understand how their goals impact the overall big picture, due to their lack of direct contact with students. Some CFOs and COOs operate in siloes much moreso than their academic counterparts. That isolation, whether it’s inadvertent or self-imposed, is really harmful to the organization as a whole. The COOs and CFOs certainly see themselves as leaders of their function, but they often don’t assume that they are also stewards of the organization as a whole. Sometimes part of the obstacles around building an infrastructure for success, whether operational, financial, or academic, has to do with how the leadership team works together to ensure that however the problem solving looks and whatever solutions are being executed, it is taking a holistic view that includes a COO and CFO sitting at the table and advocating for the best interest of the kids from their position of accountability.

One component of our fellowship is designed to quickly turn any less-than-ideal dynamics around–it is known as the Capstone Project. We believe a new COO or CFO should have a tangible win within their first six months. This sets the tone for their tenure, it facilitates working relationships among their peers, and engenders trust among their team. Fellows select a project after consulting with their CEO and leadership team. Their Capstone represents a pressing need of the organization. Through the Capstone Projects, our fellows have made an early impact on their organization’s overall financial health and quality of operations services.

We have about 60 fellows who have completed or are currently going through the FOX Fellowship. Over the course of the program, we get to experience the joy of seeing Fellows grow! We’ve had several instances where folks join the fellowship in interim roles, with their CEOs wondering about whether or not a promotion will materialize, and at the end of the fellowship, that promotion happens. Another exciting outcome is the network of connections that are happening with each cohort; these are life-long connections. Being a new leader who does such difficult work is hard and doesn’t leave much time or opportunity to build a network with peers outside the organization. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see folks that came into FOX feeling isolated or alone leaving the fellowship with a built-in family that provides support and a lifetime of lifelines. What’s really great about the fellowship is that you have representation of 20+ charter management organizations. Everybody comes together with a unique perspective about how to approach a problem. We share examples of how a particular problem or focus area should be approached, but the biggest learning comes from fellows sharing and learning from each other.

Lastly, the connections that our Fellows have made with their coaches is also something unique and special. It is not uncommon to have a coach continue their work with a fellow after the fellowship ends, and thus they continue a relationship. This is a testament to how incredible our coaches are and how much value they add to the networks they support.

What’s next for FOX Fellowship

We launched the pilot very quickly and are already on our third cohort. We are building excitement about FOX. We have a wait list for cohort 4, which will launch in September 2024. We have other amazing CFO and COO leaders who are raising their hand to be coaches. We need to pat ourselves on the back because we feel like we’ve done an amazing job so far to make each cohort even more of a success. We simply want to make the fellowship as impactful as possible.

If you’re interested in participating, please fill out the FOX Fellowship Interest Form.

Summer Charter School Enrollment Scenario Budgeting Advice

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability.

Summer recruitment can bring up to a 20% surge in enrollment depending on local context and organizations’ time, resources, and focus. To achieve that surge, it’s critical to invest in marketing and recruiting activities and in particular, to tailor your strategies to your greatest areas of need. Summer recruitment activities require discipline in a variety of proven recruitment strategies including immediate lead follow-up, family engagement activities, old and cold lead follow-ups, efficient and engaging family onboarding, and family referral encouragements.

No matter how well we enact these strategies, there are often forces that will prevent us from meeting our enrollment goals. There are significant financial implications to missing enrollment targets. From a fiscal health standpoint, our schools will suffer unwanted consequences if we wait until close to the beginning of the school year to plan for operational changes required by enrollment misses.

While it isn’t fun to prepare for the downside possibilities, doing so protects your school(s) and the quality of your student services in the long run. We recommend you:

  1. Develop your downside fiscal scenario – how much of a fiscal deficit might you have from enrollment shortfalls?
  2. Confront the reality – The downside fiscal amount is a leadership and communication tool – it is a brutal fact that requires buy-in before rallying to fix it.
  3. Identify your stakeholders and rally the team – Be clear on who owns what responsibilities in the process of planning for downside mitigation strategies, knowing often the finance team might inform rather than make the decisions.
  4. Set a timeline for decisions – What is your cutoff date to determine how many students you anticipate and when implementation of changes should start?
  5. Monitor and leverage data – Report daily and weekly enrollment by grade and by school; use the data to inform where changes might need to be enacted. Use student outcome data to guide trade-off decisions.

With the team and timeline in place and your values at the center, your school organization can identify budget mitigation strategies equitably and effectively. At Afton, we believe the answers lie within your school communities. They depend on your student needs, your organizational values, and instructional strategies. And, there are some common approaches to consider as starting points. Learn more about these approaches in our Enrollment Scenario Budget and Planning document.

Navigating Uncertainty and Preparing for the Education Fiscal Cliff

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Financial Sustainability.

Our guidance includes:

  1. Understand and confront the reality
  2. Engage and empower stakeholders
  3. Identify, invest in, and prioritize what works for students, staff, and families
  4. Plan now for sustainability
  5. Remain flexible to what may change

The first step here is understanding and confronting the reality. This includes developing a multi-year financial forecast to quantify the fiscal problem. Identify and communicate the forces causing a forecasted fiscal deficit, which include:

  • ESSER funds: These federal relief dollars must be obligated by September 2024 and expire thereafter. These funds have been integral to learning recovery investments and providing stability for school systems as much else in the operating environment has been unstable.
  • Economy: Since COVID-19, the cost of facility debt financing has risen while inflation and the corresponding cost of services and personnel has skyrocketed. Uncertain economic forecasts lead to some question about how sufficiently future tax dollars that support state education funding with increase correspondingly
  • Enrollment: NCES forecasts that through 2030, only five states will experience increased public school enrollment. In fact, this year’s tenth grade class is the largest class in the K12 system, and there will be 4% less enrollment in public schools across the nation in 2030 compared to 2019.
  • Talent: According to the IES School Pulse Panel, 53% of public schools reported feeling understaffed entering the 2022-2023 school year. And Teaching vacancies are more prevalent in high-minority schools and schools in high-poverty neighborhoods.

However unjust this circumstance is, we must navigate the situation in student-centered and values-driven ways across stakeholders.

COMMUNICATION: Engage and Empower Stakeholders

Engaging and empowering stakeholders in the change process can provide a meaningful and comprehensive path for determining the appropriate changes for navigating the fiscal cliff.

  • Lead with your values. Set guiding principles for change grounded in your organization’s values. Make communication and engagement commitments you know you can keep.
  • Empower your team. Consider how those most impacted by change and those accountable for spending might lead this change work. How might your finance function inform rather than lead the work to address the fiscal cliff? Identify the roles you want each part of your organization and each stakeholder group to play in operational decision-making.
  • Communicate reality. Change requires buy-in on why it’s necessary. That communication on the problem is critical underpinning before jumping to the solutions. Maintain the discipline to communicate the facts of your current environment. Approach conversations about resources with empathy and transparency. Change requires buy-in on why it’s necessary.
  • Tell the story. Each stakeholder group has a potential powerful role in being the ambassador of your progress story. Leverage your ecosystem and advocacy support.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Know What Works & Prioritize It

  • Identify what works. Identify aspects of your schools and similar schools that are contributing to positive student experience and value for parents and students. Develop and implement a plan to organize your school community to gather and analyze this data.
  • Prioritize. Identify the resource implications – programs, staffing, schedules – of your strategies that are working. Use your remaining one-time funds to support high impact learning recovery investments and non-recurring commitments that you won’t be able to afford in the future. Leverage your stakeholders to identify aspects of your operations that might have to change (levers include school-wide schedules, enrollment, fundraising, cohort sizes, transportation, maintenance schedules, ancillary services, refinancing). Iterate with your financial planning toward finalizing your operating priorities.

SUSTAINABILITY: Plan Now

  • Protect & Grow Revenue. Focus on enrollment: Invest to ensure family engagement is a top priority and a core competency. Take advantage of opportunities to maximize grade level cohorts. Invest in relationships that can lead to fundraising investments.
  • Scenario Plan. Understand potential financial impact of recession on state revenues. Run projections for the years that ESSER funds go away. If you don’t change operations, what is the financial impact on the organization and each school? Build plans for up, base, and down scenarios in enrollment and public funding. Identify targeted opportunities to reduce expenses in downside scenarios.
  • Establish & Reinforce Guardrails. Clarify your school system’s most important financial guardrails – loan covenants, liquidity needs, financing goals, etc. Communicate with key stakeholders your approach to ensuring long-term health of organization while navigating today’s opportunities and challenges.

FLEXIBILITY: Prepare for Uncertainty

  • Monitor financial health. Develop a financial health dashboard and set a cadence for discussion of strengths and risks on at least a quarterly basis. Develop rolling 12-18 month cash flow forecast, as needed.
  • Build Liquidity. Increase your cash target (we recommend >90 days) to provide flexibility in times of high uncertainty. Establish or renew a line of credit or revenue anticipation note. Ensure you’re claiming federal and other grant funding regularly.
  • Stay Scrappy. Limit new ongoing commitments. For example, when possible/reasonable, make strategic one-time investments (contractors, bonuses, etc) to avoid paying for recurring expenses with short-term funds. Consider staging/scaling facilities projects, rather than taking on new debt during a time of elevated cost of financing. Budget conservatively on inflation and per pupil funding assumptions.

Contents of this post were developed in a collaboration of Afton Partners and Charter School Growth Fund.

Iron Sharpens Iron: Collaboration Amongst Memphis Charter School CFOs

Written by Carrie Stewart on . Posted in Financial Sustainability, Leadership Development.

The vote to disband Memphis City Schools, seceding into six separate school districts, proved to be an egregious example of intentional segregation. That choice deepened existing opportunity gaps facing Tennessee’s highest-need students, while allowing school funding inequities to persist. But Memphis Shelby County Schools and its charter school leaders in this state refuse to back down on issues ranging from school funding policy to curriculum—and they know that changing the education funding formula can have lasting impacts.

In underserved communities like Memphis, schools get pitted against each other—for resources, for staff and student recruitment, even when they are part of the same local education agency. That resource-related competition dynamic is a byproduct of unjust education funding policy.

By elevating collaboration over competition, Afton has facilitated a cohort of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in Memphis for the past two years, including Gestalt Community Schools, Freedom Preparatory Academy, Journey Community Schools, and KIPP Memphis. Collaboration has enabled cohort members to feel more confident in their roles and better equipped to lead their schools’ finances. The four charter school CFOs in the Memphis cohort have built trust and learned the benefits of peer networking…because it’s ultimately a larger fight and one that they’re in together. Especially in Memphis, it will require a collective effort to rise above systemic barriers.

Our cohort holds rich discussions that leverage research and data and support these leaders to problem solve and take action. But if I’m being honest, I’m learning as much from them, and their acumen and tenacity, as they are from us. These inspirational leaders are doing transformative work for our students, our schools and our communities. I’m honored to work with them.

-Carrie Stewart

Anika Baltimore is the CFO for Freedom Prep.

Norriese Rogers, the Chief Financial & Human Resources Officer for Gestalt.

Anika and Norriese both graciously shared more with us about their collaboration and how the cohort has impacted their work.

Can you tell us about the cohort in your own words?

Norriese Rogers: The cohort is amazing. It has given CFOs in our area not only a sounding board, but an opportunity to think about best practices and collectively problem solve. Many of us are facing similar challenges, such as how to effectively allocate ESSER funds. Before the cohort, I felt like I was doing this work in isolation. Now, I have a safe space to discuss what I’m experiencing and learn from other’s expertise and knowledge.

What motivated you to join the cohort?

Anika Baltimore: We have a responsibility to ensure the organization’s sustainability. The first part of every meeting is, “What are the hot topics?” where we discuss the most immediate challenges. It’s such helpful context to discuss this with folks in the same position and juggling similar responsibilities. Since I was new to working for Memphis schools, this cohort started at the perfect time for me as I suddenly had this incredible team I could rely on. I was connected through Afton, who did our financial model.

Can you tell us about your individual initiatives at your schools since joining the cohort?

Norriese Rogers

  • Motivating Educators: We used ESSER funds to implement bonuses for staff, where they can earn up to $2500 per quarter based on student interim assessment scores. This stipend extends to our entire staff, where janitors and secretaries can earn up to $1,000 for individualized or small-group tutoring. Not only is our staff really excited about this, since we’ve never had bonuses aligned to outcomes for students, we’re already seeing it have a real impact on achievement and growth.
  • Staff Retention: We had staff members going through significant challenges in connection with the pandemic. In response, we established a “Gestalt Cares” initiative, where we were able to support team members through initiatives like donating Paid Time Off (PTO) and supporting additional Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). This has had a positive impact on retention.
  • School Expansion: We’re currently working on an acquisition for our fourth campus, which would allow us to provide excellent educational opportunities to more Memphis children.

Anika Baltimore

  • Compensation Plan: We were able to codify and bring structure to our compensation plan. Based on the analysis, we were able to attain more stability, so our compensation was predictable and aligned to our school’s vision.
  • Benefits: We also improved our employee benefits package. We improved our plan and were able to incorporate holistic medical coverage, adopt a paid leave plan, and not drastically change our rates for employees.
  • Facility Financing: We recently closed on a $22 million Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF) financing to refinance, purchase our fourth and final building, and conduct needed renovations.

Are there any broader lessons or takeaways you’d share with other leaders that you have gained from this experience? If so, can you tell us about them?

Anika Baltimore: Anytime there’s an opportunity to collaborate and build a network of like-minded people who can push you and help you think about things you wouldn’t normally think about—take it. Whatever role you play, whatever you are, it gives you a set of eyes from people who also deeply get it.

Norriese Rogers: Use your resources. And this cohort has proven to be a tremendous resource. Although Afton brought us together, we email each other all the time seeking advice, commiseration, and input. We don’t have unlimited resources but this one group has proven, again and again, to be invaluable. Collaboration is key. Iron sharpens iron. I don’t really boast, but the folks in this cohort are the sharpest CFOs in this state. Without this cohort we wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn from each other, or even know each other.

Anika Baltimore and Norriese Rogers are two of five members of the Memphis CFO Cohort. The other three members include: Angela Carr (and formerly Kaleo Curtis) from KIPP Memphis and Matt Seigel & Randi Owens from Journey Community Schools. The group has met bi-weekly or monthly over the last two years.

Financial planning for remote learning: Afton’s lessons learned from hundreds of technology-enabled school models

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability, Resource Equity.

Students, teachers, and parents received a crash course in the spring to varying degrees of success, and this summer has allowed schools to evaluate that experience. As SY20-21 approaches and COVID-19 risks grow, more and more cities and states across the country are anticipating delayed in-person re-openings and creating fully remote options for some or all families. For many of these schools, the financial aspects of this continuation in technology-enabled instruction remains blurry.

While the types of technology-enabled learning employed today with remote and virtual learning may change after the pandemic, the experience will inevitably have lasting effects on how instruction is delivered in a post-pandemic world. School systems have made significant investments in hardware, software, and access, all of which will be accessible beyond the pandemic. And teachers will have learned new approaches to instructional delivery and student engagement which may inform their future practices.

For school business officials and boards across the country, now is the time to ensure that your new year’s budget and procurement planning fully captures the needs of your school system as it delivers technology-enabled instruction. And now is the time to understand what longer term investments may be needed to sustain aspects of technology-enabled instruction that will be relevant beyond the pandemic.

Since 2011, Afton has worked with over 200 schools, school systems, and school leaders in developing and evaluating long-term resource plans to support innovative school models, including those incorporating technology into the classroom. While most of these school models were not the virtual classrooms being employed during COVID-19, many of them require similar resources to virtual and hybrid learning. Much can be gleaned from the investments made by these schools to assist in financial planning today. As follows, we share three primary points of advice for school systems about financial planning for technology-enabled instruction.

Invest heavily in staff and their professional development.

For many, this is a new way of instructional delivery. The most critical thing to remember is that technology does not do the teaching – it enables the teaching.

Our advice:

Ensure the budget includes a material, recurring investment in professional development and teacher collaboration and planning time. Time and time again, in our discussions with school leaders and evaluations of their financial plans, investments in additional staff and professional development to support technology-enabled instruction proved to be the most important investments.

District leaders of schools implementing technology-enabled instruction invested more than 50% of one-time and recurring funding in personnel.

Following is a summary of actual and projected 5-year expenditures of Districts and Charter networks implementing technology-enabled school models. The data represent the resource allocation plans for 11 school systems, 110 schools, 850 classrooms and 36,000 students as of fiscal year 2019.

Be flexible and expect trial and error.

There will likely be some initial hardware and software choices that, when implemented, do not fully fit the needs of staff and students.

Our advice:

Ensure the budget includes a contingency for hardware and software and that procurement policies and practices are in place to enable swift course corrections. These often require significant changes in policy, but also culture shifts to ensure responsiveness, flexibility, and adaptability.

Plan now for hardware refreshes and sustaining software and professional development.

Because there are likely to be aspects of today’s pandemic-induced instruction that will forever change instructional delivery practices, school systems will need to plan for maintaining its technology and professional development investments into the future. Devices purchased during the pandemic will need to be refreshed in a few years, and there will need to be a provision for annual replacement devices. Learning management systems and instructional content may need to be enhanced or upgraded. Teachers and administrators will evolve in their use of technology as will their professional development needs. Post-pandemic, there will be school systems that will re-think how instruction should be delivered – including migrating to more competency-based approaches, changing classroom structures, and rethinking school scheduling and course offerings with a new view of in-person and virtual instruction at some grade levels. These considerations may completely change needs for school-level staffing, technology, and professional development investments.

Our advice:

Ensure you have a multi-year financial plan and include a contingency for renewing the current technology and professional development investments. As it is appropriate, begin assessing successes and opportunities that arise from this shift to technology-enabled instruction, and what implications it may have in the post-pandemic world. As you think ahead to long-term strategic planning, identify resources and services that could potentially be repurposed to meet post-pandemic instructional design opportunities.

How does this apply to your remote learning plan now?

As you think about the fall, and investments you might need to make, we can look at the types of investments that have been made by school in other models of technology-enabled instruction. Here we share the costs you can expect at the district and school level, alongside a few ideas for tradeoff considerations.

One-time costs: we define one-time costs as those that will expire or end after the school model has been fully implemented. An example of a one-time cost includes intensive professional development, or a program manager position that may be filled only during implementation, which may take anywhere from one to three years.

These findings are consistent with outcomes of a study our team led through LEAP Innovations in Chicago, wherein we evaluated the costs of implementing personalized learning across six schools. This study, Sustaining Innovation and Preparing for Scale: Financial Sustainability Research and Analysis of Personalized Learning School Models, found one-time investments ranged from $233 to $1,135 on a per pupil basis across the six schools.

Recurring costs: Our definition of recurring costs to support tech-enabled school models includes those investments that will be required to sustain these models in the long-term (i.e. after an implementation period).

Trade-offs: To fund these recurring costs, we have seen Districts employ strategies such as developing a long term staffing strategy, identifying inefficient technology spending and reallocating funding for textbooks and school supplies.

  • Long-term staffing plan. We recommend each district implementing a tech-enabled school model(s) perform a review of their existing position structure to identify opportunities to create positions required for long term success of these new models (such as blended learning coaches, data specialists) while also identifying opportunities for change in their existing structure (review of job descriptions, plan for turnover, etc.). When implemented effectively, a significant component of long term funding of recurring tech-enabled needs can be sourced with this approach.
  • Evaluate technology spending. Various studies have shown a significant underutilization of existing technology within school districts. Performing even a basic technology audit (such as one offered by Learn) could identify opportunities to more effectively leverage limited available funding for more impactful information technology spending.
  • Reallocate existing funding. More and more districts are reallocating historical funding from supplies and textbooks to software, content and devices. There is also an opportunity to evaluate central services and determine how to best support schools utilizing technology-driven instruction through re-evaluating large major contracts.

The specific impact this has on your schools depends on your start point, your approach to SY20-21, and what you envision for the future:

Given this, as you build your financial plan, consider these specific questions:

  • What is our starting point for technology? Should we (have we) conducted a technology audit?
  • What supports do our teachers need? What professional development could be provided to effectively support teachers in effective use of technology for remote learning?
  • What is our level of student access, and what do we need to do now to improve access (including devices, wifi, servers), if anything?
  • Do we have the right blend of online/asynchronous vs. synchronous materials and content? Should we (have we) conducted a software/content audit?
  • Can we improve upon student assessment and/or data systems? Should we invest in or support data-driven instruction PD or platforms for our teaching staff?
  • Do we anticipate these being short-term or long-term investments?
  • What sources of funding exist for one-time and recurring investments?

What have you learned about the financial aspects of remote instruction? Do these findings and recommendations ring true to you? What would you add or change? Let us know! Contact us at connect@aftonpartners.com.