Charter School Consultant

I am passionate about educational equity and love helping charter schools reach their potential for their students.  I enjoy tackling tough problems to find creative solutions for mission driven organizations.

• Budgeting – planning for people and facilities can be difficult as needs change over time, can help develop and execute annual and 5 years budgets
• Risk Analysis – can take a critical look at budgets and financials to find potential problems before authorizers and auditors
• Cost saving – can find ways to save precious funds without taking away what students need to be successful

• Building development – can help with the design, planning, and execution of developing a new facility including advising on working with contractors, vendors, and movers
• Building systems – can help find the right security and safety systems and guide the process to ensure it meets the needs

• Strategy – can collaboratively develop a plan to find what works to find the students needed
• Execution – can help execute the plan of people, developing marketing materials, and identify vendors when needed
• System – can develop a platform to track each step of the process using SchoolMint and other methods of tracking the sales flow

• Student Information Systems – can advise on selection and implementation
• Technology – can advise on long term thinking and planning for technology needs
• External Relations and Partnership Building – can advise on strategy to engage with key stakeholders
• Communications – can advise and execute on strategic communication needs in the operations space including newsletters and social media

• Operations Manual – can develop a comprehensive repository of organizational knowledge for future use and to prevent institutional loss when staff move on
• Staffing – can develop responsibilities matrix and job descriptions to help hold staff accountable
• Event Management – can develop a standard for hosting and managing events
• Building Cleaning – help develop a standard for holding employees and vendors accountable to ensure a clean building
• Human Resources Paperwork – help develop a system for ensuring compliance
• Staff Recruitment, Interviewing and Hiring – advise on a rigorous process to find the best talent

Experience in the charter school sector from two years as Chief Operating Officer of Vertus Charter High School and five years on the Board of Trustees at Urban Choice Charter School, three as Board Treasurer.  In my tenure at Vertus I led the operations side of school, where we successfully tripled in size, relocated to a new state of the art facility, and developed extensive systems and routines. For Urban Choice I have been a major player at the board level, steering the organization’s focus to student outcomes, strategically spending precious funds, and hiring a fantastic new CEO. Taken together these experiences lend insight from two different charter organizations along with a network of professionals to call on for guidance

Beyond charter schools I have other experiences at the intersection of education and business. On the business side I helped lead a successful turn-around and sale of a family business and consulted with a small business owner to expand his business. On the education side, I have a deep level of expertise in education including degrees in Secondary English Education and International Education focusing on education finance and policy.  Professionally I have run adult education programs and innovative research projects for a think tank in NYC. In addition, I am currently a doctoral student in St. John Fishers Executive Leadership program.