001All right, guys. Um, so thank you again for joining us. Um, we really appreciate having you. So again, this is our first support seminar. Um, where we will just be discussing things that are going to help you as you go through the application. Um, you'll have some presentations today. Um, but before we get into all that, let's make sure we use our question and answer function if you need to reach out to us. We will not be allowing you guys to come off of mute. Um, and if there is um, if you have an AI notetaker, we will be removing that. So, just want to give you that heads up that if you see your AI noteaker um, get removed, that is the reason why. All right, so let's go to our agenda and talk
002a little bit about what's in store for today. So this is your governance and community engagement session. Um the goal here is to give you information in truncated um segments. So it's not all at once. Information session is fast and furious and very long. We definitely recognize that. So, in order for us to give you bigger details, we want to give you bite-sized pieces so you are able to digest them a little bit better. So, we're going to do some updates, norms, evaluation criteria um from our team, the new school's team. We will then pass it over to Valerie to talk about governance. We will then have a presentation from Chelsea to talk through um CSP and what that looks like. Um and then we'll have a conversation about finance. That is everybody's um big
003thing. It does uh raise a lot of questions. So we want to make sure you have just a little bit more time to dive into that besides the the information session. All right. So let's ground ourselves in norms, questions, and updates. So these are recorded. They will be posted to our website. It does take us a little bit of time to get all of those um nice and tidy and ready to be posted. So, as soon as we finish, um our goal is to get that on our website for you to be able to review and go back and look at. Um we do also have our FAQ document posted on our website. You can go and control F and browse through those questions and see if it's something that you have. um but it
004has grown um over the past multiple cycles moving from gen one all the way to gen 31. So I'm pretty sure if you have a question it it could appear in that FAQ. Um if there you are in need of technical support feel free to reach out to any of us we can help. Hop on a Zoom call you share your screen we can help you with accessing any document that you need. little shout out. We do have office hours starting September 29th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Um, so all of that information, again, our website houses all of those things. Um, and if you're still confused, can't find it, shoot us an email. We'll use that question and answer function throughout our time together this morning. Um, and then that is where you're going to
005go to our website to access the narrative document which will be helpful for you to have open during these conversations as well as that financial plan workbook. So, um, just a little reminder to recalibrate us. We are only able to answer technical or logistical questions regarding your application. If you have some more nuance question, we recommend that you email us so we can take a look at that. Um, it's not completely guaranteed that we're able to go too in depth about your specific application and your application needs. Alrighty. Any questions in there so far? I think we're doing so good. All right. So, we're going to get prepared to talk through our first section. Um Valerie's going to give you a presentation here in a minute, but to ground that conversation, um let's talk about
006the governance criteria. If you need to access this, it is located in the instruction and guidance. All of the things are there. Um it's a nice neat section terminology towards the bottom. So hopefully you've already read all of those top pages before you begin the application. The bottom portion is um goes through all of the criteria of what the narrative responses are looking for. So let's frame our discussion around a strong response. So the narrative section, the criteria um they center around having a detailed governance narratives showing the capacity and the rules and the responsibility. So I'll pause for just a second, let you finish reading, and then we'll keep going. So, as you are reading through those governance criteria, um Valerie's going to expand on what those look like. Um, but just want to
007make sure it's framed for you that these are the criteria that are listed in the instruction and guidance focused on showing capacity. Um, going through the specific roles and responsibilities of the sponsoring entity. Um, and we want to make sure you know where that information is grounded in the narrative. So, with all of that being said, I am going to pass it over to Valerie to give her presentation on governance. Thank you so much, Britney. Let me take a moment and make sure I am sharing my screen. All right, perfect. All right, so good morning everyone and welcome as Britney said to our Gen 31 applicant support seminar. I am going to be leading us through a lot of talk about school boards this morning. So to introduce myself before I get too far into
008my presentation, my name is Valerie Trevinho. I am proud to be the division division director here for the department of charter school authorizing. And this morning we are going to talk a whole lot about your school boards for your proposed schools. So on our agenda, it'll be a quick session with me. Um, we're going to talk about board member selection, what it means to have a diverse board, the personal integrity and duties of care for your school board, um, and then their duties and training requirements, which is always a very hot topic. And then we'll have time at the end for Q&A. While you can't come off mute, be sure to put any questions in the Q&A function here on Zoom. All right. So, as I stated, first we're going to talk about your board
009member selection. So the purpose of your school board is that they promote the mission and vision for your school. So they are going to ensure that the programs and activities of the school are in alignment with the mission and vision that you've set for your new school. And they are going to help you to clear clearly communicate the school's vision, goals, and direction to the greater school community. So taking that vision and making sure that as a team they are propagating the right messages about the school and making sure that the decisions that you make as your school grows and expands um and carries out its mission and vision are all in alignment together. So the performance expectations for your school board has a lot of different functions. So when you think about um the
010school board members holding themselves responsible for the overall performance of the school, you're going to think of a few different areas. So first is goal setting. So thinking about the academic, financial, and operational performance of your school, hiring a school leader to implement those goals, providing resources to assist in the completion of those goals, and thinking about how you're allocating the resources and the the materials that you have, and then running out some sort of system by which to evaluate and get better on a periodic process in alignment to those goals. So, how they're going to set metrics and make sure that you're continuously refining that. Again, keeping in line with the mission and vision of your school. All right. A big role of the board is to hold the superintendent accountable. So, you don't
011want your school being run by one lone entity. You want your board to really be a source of accountability, a source of checks and balances to make sure, again, I'm going to be a broken record this morning, that you are staying in line to your school's mission and vision. So they hold the superintendent accountable by providing resources for the effective operation of the school, allowing the leader to manage those resources to accomplish the performance of the performance goals of the school and making sure that they're held accountable by implementing successfully all the performance measures for that goal. Your board members are going to seek input and advice. So they are the ones that are going to get that feedback from the superintendent does that as well. But they really do have a big role in
012listening to concerns of students, parents and staff, the charter community and acting on those concerns by establishing committees so that you can really delve into some issues and you're really making proper decisions based on highquality relevant information and to seek feedback through other processes. So whether or not you're doing surveys, town halls, open forums, but making sure that they are really holding dear to what the community needs, again coming back to what I keep saying, that mission and vision of the school and making sure that they're taking that input and pushing the school forward in response. Right? So, at this point, we obviously are in a webinar, so I can't hear from you, but I have some questions on the board um that you can think through as you develop your school board and are
013thinking through this. So, these are questions that you should be asking yourself as a board member or as a superintendent in order to to best plan. So, number one, what are the ways that I as a board member promote the vision and mission and vision of the school? How do we do this as a board? As a board, have we set performance expectations for the school? Do we know what those metrics are? Are they measurable? How often do we review progress on those performance expectations? Is the superintendent's evaluation linked to our performance evaluation? So again, making sure you have that unity and alignment there. And what other performance measures are in place for our superintendent? In other words, what are those accountability systems? And as a board, do we have systems in place to get
014feedback from key stakeholders including parents, staff, community members, and students? So those are the questions. As you're working on your application, as you are building your board, really think about what your answers to these questions would be. And if you don't have an answer, that's a great way to stop, reflect, and build out. Okay. So now we're going to talk a little bit about diversity of your board. So when we talk about diversity of a board, we're really talking about professional diversity. So you want to have a very wide array or a rich array of skills on your school board so that you have experts in different fields helping to make decisions for the school. So think about having folks from different backgrounds such as finance, education, of course, real estate, law, service professions, human
015resources, medical professions, or industrybased professions. And this is really going to depend on your specific school community where you're located, what your mission of your school is. If there's a certain focus for careers, if there's a certain focus for college, if there's a certain focus for a typical or atypical model of learning, you want people on your board who understand that, have that expertise. And we do have a couple, you may not think of having a real estate professional on your board, but again, schools need a place to be. you do need to think about about that type of of skill as you're finding properties, you know, thinking about about moving your school. So, you really want to put a school board together that has that rich array of experiences and expertise. All right. Now,
016those are the backgrounds that your board members might have. But as far as skills for all board members, they need to be able to communicate effectively to staff, parents, and students. So they really are going to be some of the faces of your school. So you want to make sure they have those effective communication skills, talking to people, written communication, going back and forth in a discussion. Secondly, a willingness to grow professionally and to become a knowledgeable board member. At the end of my talk, we're going to get to the training requirements, but you want people who are ready to engage with you, consistently seek out new opportunities, and be willing to learn and grow along with your school and community. And then lastly, a desire for personal accountability for the overall success of the
017school and the accomplishment of its mission and vision. So in the end, you want them to be really engaged in your school, really want the best for it, and really be dedicated to making sure that you are ultimately reaching your goals. Okay, so again, this is pause for you to reflect um does our board membership reflect professional diversity? What are some areas of professional expertise that we need to add to our board? So, do a little bit of a self assessment at this time. Think of who you currently have on your board or if you haven't established all of those folks yet, who might you need to add in order to really get that rich array of professional skills on your team. We're now going to talk about professional integrity and the duties of care,
018loyalty, and obedience. So, when it comes to these three things, these are the foundational duties of your board. So, your charter school board is trusted with the responsibility to ensure that the school is well-managed, has high academic expectations of performance, and is fiscally sound. And those are going to fall into those three duties buckets that you see on the screen there. duty of care, duty of loyalty, and duty of obedience. Okay, for the first one, the duty of care requires board members to be reasonably reasonably aware of what's occurring at the school so that they can make informed decisions. So, they have to have different connections. We talked about communication and being accountable. They need to know what is occurring on the school so they can be able to make that besti decision. Board members
019should be joining prepared for meetings, actively participate in planning and decision-making and making informed judgment. So if there is data reports, if there are news events, if there are, you know, hot topics or big changes happening, your board members should be aware of those so that they're not making decisions in silos and they're really able to take into account everything that is occurring on your campus or network. Okay. Loyalty requires board members to always put the best interests of the school above any personal or professional interests. So again, when you're choosing your board members, really want to make sure that you are free of any real conflicts of interest, perceived conflicts of interest, and not engaging in any related party transactions. Okay. And last is the duty of obedience which requires board members to ensure
020that the school complies with all of the laws, rules and regulations. So that's again when it comes into that um being willing willing to professionally grow is to be aware of what these laws and regulations are and making sure that as you are monitoring and running your school that you are making decisions in line with those state and federal laws, rules and regulations. So this means that they are also acting in good faith to fulfill the terms of the charter contract and other policies established by the authorizing body. And when making decisions, board members should only make decisions that are in the best interests of students. The board should also ensure that the school is obeying the policies that the board has adopted. So again, coming back to that mission and vision, what you put
021in your SCA school application, what you've laid out in your policies, what you've laid out in your charter contract, all of that has to actually be happening in theory and in practice on the campuses each and every day and your school school board has that duty of obedience to make sure that all of that is in alignment and is is really happening in the day-to-day. those policies are not just papers that were kept somewhere that the decisions and the actions that are happening dayto-day on the campus are in alignment with what they have on paper. Now this is a huge hot topic which is board members duties and training requirements. Now chapter 100 which outlines all of these requirements was just updated in October 2024. So some of this if you've looked at it before
022but haven't seen it in a while might look a little bit different and note that there is differences in schoolboard training from traditional ISTDs versus charters. So there are some laws that you may see from chapter 61 but we are talking about chapter 100 that outlines the charter schoolboard training. Okay. So it states in chapter 100 that charter boards have the final authority to do these things. Hear grievances, adopt or amend the budget, direct the disposition of records, adopt charter operation policies, approve annual audit reports, and to select employee direct, evaluate, renew or non-renew or terminate set compensation for the CEO or superintendent. So those are the the big buckets of final authority for your charter boards. Okay. The non-delable duties of charter superintendent which means these are duties that you can't give to anybody
023else is to organize the charter school's central administration or your central office. Approve reports or data submissions required by law and to select or terminate charter school employees or officers. So that's kind of the delineation between what school boards do versus what a superintendent or CEO would do. Okay. Now for the rule updates. So there is training requirements for your schoolboard. The general requirements for all training is that it is delivered by an authorized provider which can be found on the TEA website. It was just updated on Monday of this week. So it's all up to date. The delivery can be online or in person, but must have some interaction with an instructor, and there must be some way to assess learning or provide feedback. Now, there are exemptions for individuals that are certified by
024other bodies, but again, all of that information can be found on the website. The core training requirements for all board members and officers are 10 hours within the first year of that person's service in a certain bucket of different contents and topics. So those are charter law, accountability to the public, evaluating and improving student outcomes which is often abbreviated as ISO, accountability for public funds, and school safety. Now, there's a lot of specifics on different um like additional topics depending on how long you've been a board member. Um but if you are a new board member, you have two additional hours covered on any of the topics that I had on the last slide. And then for administrative officers, we have 20 additional hours that are expanding on those same topics from the slide previously.
025And for business managers, the same thing, 20 additional hours expanding on those core topics. Now that was for the first year. So beyond the continued retraining requirements are going to include topics that are going to meet the needs of the school that might address updates to the core training or specialized training for schools that are that are underperforming in academic or financial accountability. So depending on the needs of the school and you can see the continued training hours for each position listed on the slide here. All right. Now, for both of the additional training and continuing training, if excess hours are earned, 25% of those excess hours may be carried over to meet the next year's requirement. So, if there was additional training that you wanted to take advantage of, you can apply up to
02625% of them to a future year. Just make sure you keep those records. That way, they can carry over for the next year's requirements and you can be ahead of the game. All right, I know that was fast and furious, but I want to leave time for questions. I'm going to stop sharing that way I can read some of the questions. I was really in the zone with my slides there, but let me take a moment and check. I don't see any questions. Thanks, Valerie. That was wonderful information. Um, and I know there's a lot of questions that stem around governance and what all has to be done and I think you covered it really well. So, thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Of course. >> And there was somebody that looked like
027they were trying to raise their hand. Again, just a reminder, if you can just use that question and answer function, that's going to be the best way to get your question answered today. All righty. Well, we are going to shift gears again. Big thank you to Valerie. Um, and we're gonna move on over to CSP um with Chelsea and Melissa. So, John, if you can pop up the CSP criteria and we can have um and Valerie, there is a question in the chat. Um, while people are reading, I'm not sure if you want to take a look at that one. All right. So, if you guys can just take a moment and read the CSP criteria that are listed on your screen and then we will talk through a couple highlights. All right. So, before
028we dive into the details of the charter school program application with Chelsea, um I want to frame the discussion around what makes a strong response or responses, especially when answering the narrative questions in your application. The evaluation criteria are centered around detailed startup plans, clearly defining task and individuals responsible to ensure your budget is crafted effectively to support your goals. Um, ensure adequate staffing and to secure those resources. We want to make sure you have a clear picture of what the criteria is listing. You're also going to want to focus on planning for financial sustainability beyond the grant, monitoring your progress, setting up those smart goals. Um, these criteria is what is going to guide your narrative responses to show that you're prepared for a successful launch. Um, so with that, I'm going to pass
029it over to Chelsea and Melissa to dive into these criteria and the application. Right. Thank you so much, Britney. Um, some of this may or may not be new to you. Um, we're going to dive in and we'll run quickly through um, our CSP startup grant overview. Um, so like I said, some of this information may not be new, but just want to refresh it in your mind today. Starting out, um, my name is Chelsea Garcia. I'm the director of resources and support and with me today um is Melissa Miner and she is our new charter school program grant manager. Um we also have several individuals who work on the CSP grant and their information is listed there. Um we also have Britney Eldridge. She is our charter school program grant specialist. Her information is
030listed there. So should you need to contact my team, our contact information is there and we're always happy to help. Our session goals today, we'll just briefly go over the purpose, eligible applicants, grant timelines, allowable uses of funds, unallowable uses of funds, um some grant application highlights, and then we will just quickly review goal setting again. So, bringing us back to the purpose of the charter school program grant, um it is to support the growth of highquality charter schools in Texas, especially those focused on improving academic outcomes for educational or educationally disadvantaged students. And so that's really our core purpose there. Eligible applicants must be recommended by the commissioner and not vetoed by SVOE to meet the federal definition of a charter school as defined by ESM and have never received CSP funds under ESSA.
031Additionally, eligible applicants. If the applicant is affiliated with or proposing to contract with a charter management organization, the applicant will have to disclose if the CML currently receives CSP funds directly from USDE or not. And then the CML will or will not receive CSP CSP funds directly from the USDE. So, just note if an authorized charter campus receives USD CSP grant funds from their CML, they may also not receive CSP grant funds from TEA. Moving quickly into grant timelines. So, the grant start date is the date that an LEA can start incurring costs related to the grant. The NOGA or the notice of grant award is the date that the NOGA is approved and the LEA can start entering expenditures for reimbursement. And then the grant end date is the date by which the LEA
032must expend funds and utilize items or services purchased with grant funds. So just note all generation 31 CSP grant awards are subject to availability and eligibility and the completion, submission, and or ultimate award of a generation 31 open enrollment charter school does not entitle an applicant to CSP funds from the state of Texas. The CSP grant is broken into two phases. We have our planning and implementation phase. So planning includes activities related to the planning and program design of a charter's educational program. And traditionally these take place during um the planning period and then implementation are activities related to the implementation of a charter's educational program. So you'll see a visual repres representation there of the planning period. the first day of school and then the implementation period. Just note that planning activities cannot occur
033for more than 18 months. So when you're working on your budget, budget expenditures are tied to the type of activity, not when the expenditure occurs. So planning activities again are those activities or expenditures tied to the planning and design. And then implementation are activities or expenditures that are tied to the implementation of the charter school. With that in mind, some activities are only allowable in the planning phase, some are only allowable in the implementation phase, and then some are allowable in both. But there are also situations where certain purchases that are only allowable during implementation are actually purchased will need to be purchased during the planning period. An example of this is classroom furniture. And so furniture will need to be purchased prior to the start of school. Um so this can be purchased during
034the planning period although it is still a implementation activity. So the phase in which a purchase is allowable is determined by the type of activity and not necessarily when the purchase is made. A visual representation of this is here. So again some activities are only allowed as planning, some are only allowed as implementation and then some are allowed as both. So those only allowable under planning are salaries, contracted personnel and rent. Those only allowed under implementation are textbooks, technology and equipment and classroom furniture. And then those that are allowable in both are professional development and recruitment materials. Now we'll briefly move into allowable uses of funds. All costs associated with the CSP grant must meet the minimum threshold of being necessary, reasonable, allocable, and allowable. So for necessary, is the item needed for the startup
035of the charter school? Is it reasonable? Would a reasonable person spend the amount of money on the item? And would it withstand public scrutiny? Is it allocable? Is the cost being incurred specifically for startup? And is the cost proportional to the benefit provided? And then is it allowable? is the item allowable under the grant program and we'll talk more about allowability in future slides. So for allowable cost under planning activities include the planning and design design of the charter school's educational program, professional development and training for teachers and staff and special education support. Salaries are allowed for the following positions only. So that's teachers, school leaders, and specialized instructional support personnel. And what constitutes specialized instructional support personnel will be clarified in the program guidelines posted with the grant opportunity on the TEA grant opportunities
036page. But certain conditions also apply to payroll. So salaries cannot be paid for activities related to ongoing operations. Expenditures paid with CSP funds for payroll are only allowable for activities that support the planning or program design of the charter campus. And then no payroll expenditures are allowed beyond the 30th calendar day after the campus begins serving students. So if you have a personnel that split their time between ongoing operations and planning activities, um only the portion associated with planning is allowable under payroll cost. So you'll have to ensure you're keeping accurate time and effort documents um with this with payroll. Additional allowable costs for planning activities in include contractor personnel um which may be paid from the grant start date up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students and then rental occupancy costs
037for the school facility up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students. So we have another visual here um that notes the planning and implementation phase as well as what is allowed and not allowed during these time periods. So during the planning phase and up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students are allowed the personnel salaries, contracted personnel and rent. And then after the 30 days after the campus begins serving students during the implementation phase, salaries, contracted personnel and rent are not allowed. Now we can move into allowable costs under implementation activities. So these include onetime startup equipment necessary to implement a charter school which may include desk, chairs, computers, technology, physical education and art, and playground equipment. also includes technology such as smartboards for classrooms or computers and tablets for students.
038Also allowable under implementation are non-consumable supplies and materials for startup activities including textbooks, library books, reading materials, and teaching materials. These are non-consumable items. Any consumable item which is something that cannot be reused such as one-time workbooks, pens, pencils, and paper are unallowable. So all consumable materials are unallowable. Um they must be non-consumable which means that they can be reused um such as those examples there. Additionally, allowable costs for implementation activities include installation cost associated with computers, data systems, networks, and telephone systems. Um including you can also pay for installation of those smartboards as our example um for the classrooms. Also allowable under implementation are one-time startup costs associated with providing transportation to students and then cost associated with carrying out necessary renovations or minor facilities repairs. But note that minor facilities repairs neither add
039permanent value to the property or prolong its intended life. So, examples of this would be repairing a leak in the roof, replacing a broken window, and repairing a furnace or air conditioning unit and to ensure that the facilities are in efficient operating condition. Also allowable under implementation are financial management software and training. But note that software cost must be one-time expenses and if it's a subscription service, it's considered a reoccurring expense and is unallowable. also allows property insurance to cover equipment purchased with grant funds and then other appropriate non-sustained costs that cannot be supported from other sources. So the CSP grant funds will be allocated into planning cost implementation costs but keep in mind the phase in which the expenditure or activity is allowed when creating your budget. And there is a great resource on
040the TEA grants opportunities page titled planning implementation guide and that will help you determine if an expense is allowable and then whether it would fall into planning or implementation. In summary, the CSP grant supports the planning, program design, and initial implementation of public charter schools. And these are traditionally one-time cost, not reoccurring. So now we'll briefly go o over unallowable uses of funds. Some unallowable examples include re religious instruction materials or insignium ongoing cost associated with transportation for students, construction, consumable instructional or other supplies and materials, field trips, and then any expenditure in which the charter exceeds fiscal authority to a charter management organization. Um, but as a reminder, the full list of unallowable costs can be found in the program guidelines. So, if you would like to look at the documents and guidelines associated
041with the with this grant, which I highly recommend, you will go to the TEA grant opportunities page and you can find a collection of resources for the grant and grants past, which include the program guidelines and funding amounts. So here's an example of what you will see and this is from generation 29 CSP grant and the program guidelines are listed there. And so this will provide you with a great amount of information about unallowable and allowable costs with the CSP grant to help you with your budgeting. The following questions you're about to see are embedded in the generation 31 application document. So there are some narrative responses regarding the proposed use of CSP funds. Um the financial sustainability board oversight and the CSP smart goals and then you will also list all allable grant related
042activities for which the applicant is requesting grant funds in the table like we've talked about. Um so these are statutory requirements. So proposed use of CSP CSP funds. It will describe the eligible applicants plan activities and expenditures of grant funds to open and prepare for the operation of the proposed charter school. You will include the amounts budgeted for each activity and then group similar activities and costs together under the appropriate heading. Then you'll describe how the eligible applicant will maintain financial sustainability after the end of the grant period. You'll describe how the board will monitor the implementation of the startup plan, startup grant, and associated budget. Then you'll identify three to five program smart goals that will be achieved using the CSP startup grant funds. And these all should be achieved by the beginning of
043year three and clearly support the board's student outcome goals and include all progress measures that will be used to track each startup goal. Additionally, you will detail the roles and responsibilities, community engagement, and there's additional community engagement as well. You'll describe the roles and responsibilities of the sponsoring entity, any partner organizations and charter management organizations. You'll describe how the board and advocate team have assessed and built parent community demand for the proposed school. Discuss specific outreach strategies that were used. And then you'll describe plans and strategies that will effectively support ongoing solicitation and the use of effective parent, family, and community engagement input for the implementation and operation of the proposed charter school. And then finally, you'll discuss student transportation and federal CSP grant asurances. So, charter schools in Texas are not required to provide
044transportation to students. However, charter schools are required to meet the transportation needs of students receiving special education who would be unable to attend classes without transportation services outline as outlined in their IEP and students eligible under section 504 of the federal rehabilitation act who would be unable to attend class without special transportation services. You will discuss these plans and the first two questions there and then you'll read an initial all CSP assurances including the federal definition of a charter school and these assur as assurances must be met throughout the life of the grant to be eligible to continue receiving funding. And now moving into the CSP startup grant goal setting which we will just briefly review. So, in the CSP grant application, as discussed, embedded within your generation 31 application document, you will set three
045to five programmatic smart goals that will be achieved using the CSP startup grant funds. All of these programmatic goals should be achievable by the beginning of year three and clearly support the board's student outcome goals. You will also include all progress measures that will be used to track each startup goal. So, as a reminder, these are smart goals and they are to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Now, that was a very quick overview of the CSP grant process, but please feel free to ask questions and reach out um to our team. Thank you so much, Chelsea and Melissa. It does not look like there's any CSP questions in the chat right now. Um, so we just want to say thank you again and if we do get any, we can always pass those
046over to you guys. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, so I think we are doing pretty good on time actually. Um, so you may get out even earlier than um our supposed end time. So, John, if you want to pop up the financial criteria, we'll give everybody just a moment to look through that. There's lots of words on the screen. So, I will give you longer than I gave you for the slide before just to read through that. And then I will touch on the highlight. So, John is going to do a little presentation on the financial um plan workbook, the budget narrative, all of those things. But I just want to frame that conversation for those strong responses. So, the evaluation criteria is centered around a detailed budget narrative that's realistic and
047viable. So, those two really big words. The financial plan workbook is supported by the budget narrative. It has to be presented as a viable budget that supports the proposed programs including services. So the two big words is viable and realistic. Um those are going to be littered through mo majority of these criterias. Again, these are listed in the instruction and guidance and can help you as you are framing your responses to this section. So, John, I will pass it over to you to go into detail. >> Morning you all. Yeah. So, we're going to talk a bit about some financial plan considerations. For those of you all who came to the seminar yesterday, um some of this will be very fresh on your mind. Um, if you all came last week, did want to open
048our conversation with a reminder because again, I don't know how many of you all have actually um, opened the financial plan workbook yet. Um, that said, the financial plan itself does exist across multiple documents in the application, not just the workbook, but there's a startup plan. Again, we will also collectively refer to that as year zero. that startup plan um will account for post approval to opening. So in October if you are awarded a charter once you get that contract beginning from that date to when you open your doors that's your year zero your startup year. So we're looking for a strong startup plan. In that plan you'll specify tasks timelines and then also um and probably most importantly who's actually going to execute that plan. Uh the workbook we'll talk about a little bit
049here in a minute. Um the budget narrative as Britney just mentioned uh the budget narrative is a very strong has a very strong presence in our external review and the criteria to which you will be assessed on. Um and then we're also looking for clear contingency plans in that budget narrative and then evidence of financial support. And for again those who were not in attendance yesterday but attended last week, just a reminder that you do not have to have evidence of financial support. So there is a very possible scenario that when you submit your application that attachment has nothing behind it. Um or it does, but just wanted to be clear that if it does have something behind it, we are looking for something pretty concrete or something that really explains the status of those
050assumptions of support. Um so that might be dollar amounts again real property, personal property um any other sources uh upon award and then also we're looking for letters of intent uh letters of commitment um memorandums of understanding etc. All right grounding us with that I did want to talk a little bit about uh common revenue streams. We didn't really talk about it in the app info sessions. Um, so this is a good opportunity to have a little bit more of a granular conversation about as a charter school where you can kind of expect to see some of that revenue coming from. Um, obviously the biggest one is state funds. So state funds should uh constitute the bulk of your revenue as a charter school. For those either new to Texas or unaware or unfamiliar with
051how um Texas schools are funded, um Texas schools, public schools rather, um receive state funds based on average daily attendance. And we'll talk about that in two seconds. Um ADA and then the foundational school program is the source for those ADA funds. Um so a lot of times we hear u you'll hear people say, "Hey, as a charter school, you're entitled to fill-in- thelank FSP funds." That's a foundational school program. Um, and that's broken down by tier one, tier 2, and other programs. So, I'm going to take a minute and we're going to contextualize this and look at a real world example. If I can make my computer work today. Okay. So, this is the workbook and I have uh the enrollment tab opened. I've just thrown some numbers in here. Uh you can see
052that in year one I'm going to do kindergarten through third grade. Year two I'm going to grow a grade. So on and so forth. So collectively over my 5-year term I will serve basically kindergarten through looks like seventh grade with a maximum of 400 students. And it looks like in year one I'm anticipating 200 students. However, you still have to take the extra step and then indicate to us what you project your average daily attendance to be. So, that 88 percentage. Um, as a reminder, we say that you should start with 85%. We still hold to that, but again, it is not uncommon for applicants to um make that 95%. So, if you make it 95%, you'll see obviously the ADA changes. So, then that's what you're being funded off of, right? So just want
053to for you to kind of get a picture of what this looks like and that you do have control over what you anticipate your ADA to be. Okay. Um that's the first thing. Second thing is if you are interested in your your tiers. So your tier one aotments are um all your student populations more or less and programs captured in this enrollment tab. Once you input all of this information, you'll be able to go over to the summary of finance and it will break down your actual uh your tier one, tier 2 aotments. So, here we have your tier one allotments. Okay. So, I say all of this because the workbook not only is good for us, but it's also good for you as a learning tool for you to see and familiarize yourself with
054what constitutes tier one, tier 2, the impact of your state funding as you change both your ADA as well as your projected enrollment. Okay, let me see if I can pivot back without messing things up. Okay, so that's state funds. Another expect uh common uh revenue stream are grant funds. So as Chelsea mentioned the CSP fund uh CSP grant those grant funds should be available to you um if you are awarded a charter. Uh charter schools are also allowed to apply for um other both TEA and external grant opportunities. So if you see a grant that you feel you're applic uh that you're eligible for, nothing would prevent you from applying for it. You can also check our website out uh to see what the agency grant opportunities are. Um and then once this PowerPoint
055is posted online, you'll have the access to these links to check those out. So that's grant funds, but also but there's also phil other philanthropic funds. So charter schools in Texas can utilize fundraising um and other alternative philanthropic activities. And that's not limited to public. uh charter schools can also accept private uh philanthropic sources and donations as well. However, all donations um if you receive a charter, all those donations must be voluntary and cannot have any um conditions um set upon them, especially with regards to enrollment. Let me check for questions before I move on. Someone's asking uh for clarity and it's important one about the startup year. Um if you all are awarded a charter, you'll submit your application in November of 2025. You'll go through the whole process. If you make it all
056the way to the June 2026 meeting and are not vetoed and then you pass through our contingency process, your co cohort, the Gen 31 cohort, would ultimately receive a charter contract in October 2026. So, not this October, next October. That will then start your startup year for you to open in August of 2027. I hope that clarified. So yes, your startup plan should begin um in October, not during the not it should not include the drafting period, which is what you're in right now. Uh okay, let's keep it rolling. Okay, I also want to talk a bit about the timing of this revenue. And this is a good segue from uh kind of what what we just talked about. So the application drafting phase, you are not entitled to any funds um from us. uh
057no grant funds, no state funds, anything like that. Um right now, you all should be actively exploring and applying for grant awards. So, if you do ultimately receive uh invitation to interview with us, um you'll have at least a pretty solid understanding or status of where you are with some of those grants. Um and again beginning those preliminary conversations with some of those philanthropic donors again to start trying to collect those letters of intent, letters of support, etc. if that's what you want to do. So during your startup year, which again happens once you get your contract, um you still do not receive state funds. So during your startup year, you are not getting any FSP funds. You're not entitled to them. That will happen in year one. What you can do though is again
058start to utilize those CSP funds, any other grant funds that you've qualified and hopefully um been awarded, any philanthropic funds. And it's not uncommon um to see certain applicants also take uh lines of credit out if they feel that's most necessary for their condition and situation um once they're awarded. So once you open, so in August 2027, once you open for year 1 and start serving students, that's when you would start collecting those FSP funds. That's when you would start collecting um actual state funding and state revenue. So charter schools, that's when again you start to receive those state aid aotments. Um you'll still have some CSP implementation funds to draw down. um you'll start collecting any other federal funds that you are entitled to and then you are more than happy to continue to
059utilize any local funds. So the philanthropic uh sort of donations and just the fundraising efforts that doesn't stop the again charter schools many charter schools are actively you know doing that throughout their operations. So that doesn't necessarily have a time window on it. Let me check for questions before I move on. Okay. So, in terms of just some development considerations for the financial plan, um one of the most important fe features of excuse one of the most important pieces of developing the financial plan are just ensuring that your assumptions are reasonable. Um that would include your per student, per teacher, even facilities planning um and facility acquisition looking at square footage. All those things should have a like reasonable baseline assumption. Um also, and it's extremely important just like um it was told to you
060today as well as yesterday um during the other app info session that some grants are not uh you know some grants are reimbursement grants. So the payment schedule um and the payment structure and the award structure for grants vary. So as you apply for these and as you develop your financial plan, you want to ensure that as you're calculating for those grant funds that you understand what kind of revenue you're going to have to have on hand um in order to either a get paid back again or b use and draw down the grant funds that you're going to receive. Enrollment projections. This is extremely important as well. So the projections that you put in your workbook as well as everywhere else um in your application really need to be both conservative and also supported
061by a strong contingency plan um in the event of underenrollment. And so on the next slide we'll talk about some next steps and some and some things that you can do. But one thing is important is that you play with the financial impact of underenrollment as you build your budget. Right? So again, in your workbook, you can use this as a tool. If you're thinking you're going to get 300 students in year one, see what happens if you get a 100, right? How is your budget going to um be flexible to account for some of that? Likewise, you should also account for enrollment conversion. And this is something that I can't guide you on, but again, your neighboring charter schools or other educators might have a better understanding of the local kind of conversion rate
062because not every application that you get, not every person on the street that says we would love to come to your school will actually uh turn into an application or turn into enrollment. So again, if you put 200 students, account for enrollment conversion as you build that plan, scaling costs. Um again goes without saying that some costs are going to increase obviously as students and staff increase uh maybe like your technology right technology budget might something like that. Um but then other costs also increase at a different rate. So just being mindful of that. And then lastly and this is important also is that when you submit your not only as you're developing it but when you submit it make sure that your revenues exceed your andor equal your expenses. So when you submit your
063workbook, we shouldn't see you negative in year one, right? So these are all important um developmental considerations. In terms of the workbook, um I'm highlighting this slide for a reason. So we don't score your financial plan. We don't score your workbook. Our external reviewers do that. But to do that, they need the most clear presentation of information, right? And so as you were familiarizing yourself with the workbook, just ensure that your assumptions again match the budget narrative and match every other place within the application. Please, please, please use the notes columns. Again, your job is to make it easier on the external reviewers to assess the viability of this budget. If they have to make a lot of assumptions because there's not a lot of context provided, then again, that can negatively impact you when
064it could be mitigated by just adding very detailed notes. And again, one example of that would be, you know, what percentage of CSP funds may be going towards salary, right? Things like that. Um, and then enrollment tab information. And I said this before, you just want to ensure that your workbook is matching what you're saying in the rest of your uh in your narrative document, your budget narrative, etc. in terms of all the student populations that you expect to serve and the number of students that you expect to serve within those populations. All right, just checking for questions as I'm going. Okay. And then the last slide are just sort of next steps for you all as you start to build this thing out, start to think about it over the next couple months. Um
065the first thing is just building a qualified team. Not everyone has access to Fortune 500 accountants um or financial specialists who can build this budget in a weekend. We obviously recognize that. However, you want to ensure that you are getting the most qualified team, people, person to craft that budget as well as the workbook. Um, and this feeds into the second point. The budget development is not a oneperson show. And I think over time applicants have gotten really good about making budget development a team effort, but we've definitely seen in the past that one person has taken on that responsibility to build the budget. Um, that's not the best practice. Obviously, not everyone on the team needs to be financial gurus. Um, but to the extent that you can, you want to have team members
066review the budget as it's developed. Not at the end, but as it's developed using those milestones and check-ins. Extremely important so you're not caught up at the end not really understanding what this one or two people did. Um, that's obviously going to affect the trajectory for the whole team. Archived resources. This is also extremely important. I think most of you probably already know this, but you can actually review prior capacity interviews. Um, and that's a really good resource because what it's going to allow you to do is hear common questions andor areas of clarification. So, if you look year-over-year for the past few years, um, you will see we pretty much ask the same sorts of questions. And so, you might hear some questions that impact uh your specific model or your specific situation, etc.
067Um, so that's really good research. And then also we highly encourage you to review prior application submissions um including those proposed budgets of the chart of the proposed charter schools. So uh these links will take you to those websites for you to review that information. Again it's just good research to see what other people have done in the past, what's worked, maybe what hasn't worked, um etc. And then lastly are quality controls. Uh at TEA we're really big about quality controls um because we recognize what you're turning in is going to have a lot of moving parts. Just like the the financial plan is not just one document. It touches at least three or four different places in the narrative document touches three or four places in the attachment section. So on and so forth.
068So, we highly encourage you and what we've seen in the past, what works really well is just developing a process as a team that where you're going to have multiple team members making sure that what they see is complete and aligned, right? So, you're having multiple people make sure that they can sign off saying, "Hey, we looked at the same stuff. We came to the same conclusions. It all looks aligned. It all looks complete." And then another best practice is just really designating a person, not now, but as the the financial plan starts to develop, really have a person that's going to like their role is to just challenge the budget, right? And you will see that if you go look at the work uh at the capacity interviews in the past, um one of
069us will kind of like challenge some of the the the viability of the plan and ask you like what kind of contingency plans you have, etc. So internally as a team you can designate someone or someone outside the team to just read review the application, review the budget and just really press you and challenge you to make sure that um any weaknesses or deficiencies are remedied or been planned for through those that contingency planning. So um it's just a good practice to have. Again, it won't be now. It'll be more towards November. So that's what I have. Let me see. I don't see any questions, which hopefully means I did a good job for you all. Okay, >> awesome. Thank you so much, John. Um, the content history that you bring, you've seen a lot
070of those financial workbooks kind of come through. Um, and you're really able to kind of pinpoint things that we can help our applicants grow each year. So, thank you for that. Um, all right. So, we have built in a great buffer, which is awesome. Um, we expected to be here for a little longer, but that doesn't mean we can't stay and answer any more questions that may come up. Um, Sarah, anything from you while we are perusing through that? Okay. >> Nope. Thanks so much. >> Awesome. John, any last notes from you before we close it out? >> Uh, nope. Just again, please feel free to reach out to us. You can you can ask whatever you want. Uh the limitations on us is on us on what we can respond to. So, you know,
071please ask whatever you need to to make sure that you feel good about what you're going to submit in November. >> And I >> thank you. And also >> go ahead. Sorry, Britney. >> It's okay. >> I will say if you're having any issues um accessing the documents still um please give us an email or just put in the Q&A right now so that we can reach out to you. Um, we want to make sure that you're able to access them as soon as possible so that you can start d diving into your application process. >> Thanks, guys. Um, and just a little reminder yet again, our office hours will be starting in September, September 29th at 9:00 a.m. You do not have to register for that like you did for these sessions. Just hop
072on. Um, it's a more of a meeting style, so we can see your face, see your screen if we need to. Um, so just want to make sure that you guys are aware of those upcoming office hours located on our website. You can go pull that information. And then one last thing as um we're just giving you some updates. Please make sure you're checking the charter applicants page. That's where we're going to house all of the slide decks and the webinar recordings. In addition, slight plug for the virtual um support seminar that will be taking place next week on September 3rd. Um please make sure you're joining us for the support seminar. You do need to register. That registration can be found on our charter applicant page and it will take place from the same
073time 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 on September 3rd. >> And that is if you have uh questions about virtual, we'll dive a little bit deeper if that is the route you want to go or you're just like a little curious as um to what that's going to entail. So, we've talked about it in our information sessions, but again, taking a small step forward to talk in detail about some of those things that are required in that application. >> Sarah, I still see you off mood, so I wanted to make space for you. >> Nope, just forgot to mute you. Okay.