As we head into the FY27 budget season, charter school leaders and boards are once again tasked with a critical challenge: ensuring that every dollar spent directly supports student achievement while maintaining long-term financial sustainability. Read on for our roadmap for navigating the upcoming fiscal year with confidence.
Read MoreCharter renewal is a critical process for schools, demanding meticulous planning and a deep understanding of key performance areas defined by the charter authorizer. In Baltimore City, the process is especially rigorous, requiring schools to demonstrate clear performance and alignment across three domains: Student Achievement, School Climate, and Financial Management & Governance.
EdOps supported Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School’s (BMPCS) effective use of data during the recent successful renewal application. In EdOps Lab conversation with Megh Rennard, Executive Director BMPCS, we uncovered several strategies other schools can use to set themselves up for success. Read on for five takeaways to help any Baltimore charter school prepare for a strong renewal submission.
Read MoreThe Louisiana Department of Education's October CLASS submission is mandatory and vital for state funding, but requires extensive staff data often held outside the SIS. This playbook provides Louisiana schools with five key, proactive steps—from unifying HR and staffing data to clearing ADQs and verifying rosters—to dramatically reduce administrative burden and ensure a complete, accurate, and error-free submission before the January 15th deadline.
Read MoreFacilities decisions are among the most complex and high-stakes choices a school will face. Whether you are entering into a new lease, buying or renovating a building, or refinancing debt, these decisions have a lasting impact, determining a material portion of your operating budget for years to come. Read on for the steps every school leader should know.
Read MoreThe DC Public Charter School Board (DC PCSB) uses the ASPIRE framework to make school oversight decisions. DC charter school leaders, in turn, can use this data to understand their impact on student outcomes and identify areas for improvement. Read on to understand what ASPIRE is all about.
Read MoreIt's budget season which means we are looking closely at costs for next year. If you are reeling from sticker shock after speaking to your vendor partners, take solace that you are not alone.
Read MoreOur student data team partnered with the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools to develop a series of webinars and accompanying tools aimed at supporting school leaders in identifying and effectively communicating their school’s success story using data.
Read MoreIn our work of conducting finance function assessments, we’ve found it’s often hard for school Boards and others who don’t work every day on school finance to accurately gauge the health of a school’s financials and finance office. To help with that conundrum, we have developed a quick EdOps School Financial Health Self Assessment that identifies the most important financial metrics and best practices.
Read MoreOur Consulting Team recently helped a nonprofit education organization strengthen its finance function. While EdOps concentrates exclusively on supporting schools and therefore couldn’t take on this client for monthly finance support, we helped the organization find a financial services vendor that suited its needs.
Read MoreIf you are like many school leaders right now, you are both excited to access all the COVID stimulus available, but also a little anxious about how best to utilize this funding. You are hoping the funds will help you (1) maintain your program in the near-term with all of the demands of a pandemic environment while also (2) maintaining financial sustainability after the funds wind down. You are not alone and we are here to help you think about a plan for allocating these resources. This blog post will give an overview of the funding available and a step-by-step process for building COVID grant budgets.
Read MoreGood financial reports are a school CFO’s most undervalued tool. When EdOps performs a school finance function assessment, we routinely find that the challenges we uncover are caused not by ineffective staff or bad software, but by an absence of clear, concise, understandable, and agreed-upon financial reports. Too often, the financials boards receive are simply a PDF printout of a year-to-date income statement from the school’s accounting system. While this meets the minimum bar of keeping the board apprised of the school’s financial position, good financial reports tell a story. They are tailored to their audience, and they explain not just the “what” but the “so what.” At the board level, good financial reports enable robust discussion of financial options, even from board members without a financial background; they provide an accurate picture of the financials prior to the annual audit; and they lead to faster, more strategic decision making.
Read MoreAs we prepare for an unusual start to the school year, we are striving to make staff feel like valued members of our communities. One element towards that is having routine operations running smoothly so that attention can be focused on the students and their learning experience. Payroll is a predictable element of running a school that, if done well, is hardly thought about by staff – except maybe on pay day! Payroll mistakes, however, can be upsetting, stressful, and take up a lot of administrative time and energy to rectify. This is the first in a series with tips on how to process an error-free payroll based on our extensive payroll experiences with schools. We hope these will be helpful in increasing the accuracy of your payroll.
Read MoreAs we prepare for an unusual start to the school year, we are striving to make staff feel like valued members of our communities. One element towards that is having routine operations running smoothly so that attention can be focused on the students and their learning experience. Payroll is a predictable element of running a school that, if done well, is hardly thought about by staff – except maybe on pay day! Payroll mistakes, however, can be upsetting, stressful, and take up a lot of administrative time and energy to rectify. This is the first in a series with tips on how to process an error-free payroll based on our extensive payroll experiences with schools. We hope these will be helpful in increasing the accuracy of your payroll.
Read MoreAs we prepare for an unusual start to the school year, we are striving to make staff feel like valued members of our communities. One element towards that is having routine operations running smoothly so that attention can be focused on the students and their learning experience. Payroll is a predictable element of running a school that, if done well, is hardly thought about by staff – except maybe on pay day! Payroll mistakes, however, can be upsetting, stressful, and take up a lot of administrative time and energy to rectify. This is the first in a series with tips on how to process an error-free payroll based on our extensive payroll experiences with schools. We hope these will be helpful in increasing the accuracy of your payroll.
Read MoreAs we prepare for an unusual start to the school year, we are striving to make staff feel like valued members of our communities. One element towards that is having routine operations running smoothly so that attention can be focused on the students and their learning experience. Payroll is a predictable element of running a school that, if done well, is hardly thought about by staff – except maybe on pay day! Payroll mistakes, however, can be upsetting, stressful, and take up a lot of administrative time and energy to rectify. This is the first in a series with tips on how to process an error-free payroll based on our extensive payroll experiences with schools. We hope these will be helpful in increasing the accuracy of your payroll.
Read MoreAs we prepare for an unusual start to the school year, we are striving to make staff feel like valued members of our communities. One element towards that is having routine operations running smoothly so that attention can be focused on the students and their learning experience. Payroll is a predictable element of running a school that, if done well, is hardly thought about by staff – except maybe on pay day! Payroll mistakes, however, can be upsetting, stressful, and take up a lot of administrative time and energy to rectify. This is the first in a series with tips on how to process an error-free payroll based on our extensive payroll experiences with schools. We hope these will be helpful in increasing the accuracy of your payroll.
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