Generation 31 High-Performing Entity Application Information Session

001Alrighty guys. Well, thank you for joining us today on this wonderful Wednesday. Um this is the high performing entity application overview. This is the optional information session. Um we want to give you lots of details um but in a very small timeline which we will review here shortly. Um so if this is your time to shine, you would like a subd high performing entity charter school, um this is the application information session for you. So subd high performing entities. Um in our presentation today, we'll talk about what that means and if you're in the right place and you meet some of those eligibility requirements. Um but again, thank you for joining us. Just to give you a couple norms, um we are unable to let you come off of mute. Um so that raise hand

002feature does not operate in this setting. Um so we ask that if you have questions during our presentation that you use that question and answer feature. That is where you're going to get uh questions to us. Um, my team and I are constantly checking that and we will either be answering some questions live, typing you a response and or capturing um your email and your name and we'll reply back to you so you you have an answer to that. Um, so you'll get lots of great things today and thank you again for joining us. So before we get into all that nitty-gritty, I'm going to pass it over to our fearless leader, Valerie. All right, good morning and welcome. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and welcome you to our call this

003morning. My name is Valerie Trevino. I am the division director here for charter school authorizing here at TEA. I've just started with the agency in the last few months and prior to that was a campus leader and district leader for charter schools over the last 11 years. um really proud of the work and the the outcomes that charter schools are having with our students across Texas and I'm really happy to be here and to connect with all of you to bring even more high performing charter schools to our state. Now, like Britney just said, there is going to be a lot of details shared in this call over the application and the process over the course of the next year or more as you try to launch a school here in Texas. But before we

004get into all of those details, I really just want to ground us in the core values that we have here at TEA. Um, so as we read these, we are determined, we are learners, we are people centered, and we are servant leaders. This is an arduous process. I heard on the call us use that word arduous several times yesterday as there are a lot of components be prior to launching a campus or a charter as we make sure that you are prepared that you are able to lead your teachers that you're able to lead your students to to great outcomes. Um but among all of that we just want to ground ourselves in these values and make sure that through all of that you're really connected to your why. making sure that you are people

005centered, making sure that you are above all serving students and their families as you enter this very exciting process of launching your campuses here in Texas. So, welcome. And I want to kick it back to our new schools team who have worked so hard to prepare not only the application but all of the learning moments um across the next few weeks to help you get started in this process as prepared as possible. >> Awesome. Thanks, Valerie. So, we are the new schools team. Some of you may have seen our faces before. Um, but if not, there is our beautiful pictures if you want to take a screen grab, print it out, put on your fridge. We are the new schools team. We do do autographs if you see us at TPCSA. So, I am Britney

006Glenn. I'm the new school's manager. Um, prior to this seat, I was on the portfolio team, so kind of working with charters who went through the process um, and then became a charter school and got approved. Um, prior to that, I was on a campus as a campus administrator for several years. I taught English. I was a dance teacher. Um, so e education is a really big part of who I am. I don't know if I would ever be able to do anything that was not connected to education. My husband says that when I retire, I'm probably going to end up being like a Walmart greeter, but you know, here we are. Um, so I'm very, very excited to talk to you guys and to introduce my wonderful team. So, I'll pass it over to

007John. >> Hi, good morning everybody. I see a couple familiar names. Um, welcome. I've been with the agency doing this exact same thing for roughly 10 years. So, I'm hoping to bring that experience uh to you all today. And if you have any questions again, we will try to address those to the best we can and obviously um distribute any other questions where needed. So, thank you and I'll pass it to Sarah. >> Good morning, everyone. So happy to have you here. Uh my name is Sarah Khan and I'm a new school specialist. Um and I've been working with this team for almost two years now. And prior to that, I wore many hats within a charter school, charter district. Um, and so I'm just really happy to be here and ushering along the next

008second cycle for a high performing entity. So, thank you so much for being here. Britney, back to you. >> Thank you. I love when we do the Britney, back to you. I feel very much like I'm on on a live like news broadcast. So, thank you for that, Sarah. All right, so let's talk a little bit about what we're going to do here today. So our agenda, we are kind of taking up your morning. Um, but we want to make sure that your time is spent in the pieces of the application that are going to be super important. Um, so we are going to talk today through some highle things. Um, you'll hear a little bit about the virtual application and how that applies to high performing entities. We'll talk about the financial plan workbook

009which is a big component of those attachments in the application. And then we'll have a presentation about charter school programs. um by uh Chelsea Garcia and you'll hear some things on how that affects high performing entities as well. So there there's our agenda. Um we try to build in lots of buffers. Um but hopefully we can get you out of here in a very good time with all of the information. All right. So HPE um differs from our regular Gen 31 subd kind of process. And one of those ways that it differs is there are two timelines that are associated with this process. So they are January approval and April approval. So you have those two sets of time frames. So here is a more linear view of the timeline and its components. I will

010show you like a side by side um so you can kind of see what happens on both of them. So, your linear view, we'll pop over to the next slide and show you that linear view of April looks very similar. Dates change a little bit, but the pieces are still the same. I'm going to talk through the pieces on this slide here. So, my brain works like this. I like to see things side by side so I can know where which column I fall into. Um so for that January and April approval um all applications went out on August 15th. The info session is today. Um and so let's talk through the blue column right now. So January approval is what's coming up the closest. So dates you need to pay attention to the application

011has to be submitted by October 10th. Um there is no wiggle room on that. So October 10th at 5:00 p.m. you'll have to get that submitted. 501 that does disqualify you from this process. So, it's super important to know that those submission dates exist. So, January um submission date October 10th, April submission date is November 21st. So, the completion check and remedy period will either happen in October or in December. This data analysis and um review for your eligibility will either happen in October and November or December and January. Eligibility notifications then get sent out in November or January. You'll have that due diligence time frame where we're kind of checking into some things and either in November or January commissioner is going to propose award um either in November or February and then there's

012that SBOE meeting that you are going to have to attend. This is where you go before SBOE and talk about your charter field questions from them. Um so that is why we call them uh what they are. So either January approval because that SBOE meeting happens in January or April approval because it happens in April. So it kind of helps you align on what you want to do. That last box where it says charter school start, that is where it's going to help you to decide how quickly do you want to start your charter. Is it going to be in January, which would be in August of 2026 and beyond, or are you looking more for like an August 2027 and beyond? So, all of those dates in this chart can kind of help guide

013you um to which approval date you were going to be working towards. So, with all of that said, let's kind of take a 10,000 ft view for a second just to talk about some of those big picture questions that we hope to address for you today. So starting with the most ba basic question like are we even eligible to apply to what is this application and even discussing what happens after you submit your application. So our hope is that you walk away with a good understanding um of where you currently stand in this process, the necessary commitment that's required of the process and the expectations that determine how far you may advance in this process. So with all that said, um let's get started on talking about the eligible entities and who can apply. So

014there are two kind of tracks for eligible entities and the applications that are available. The first one is for local operators. This is an entity that is currently operating a charter school under TC chapter 12 sub chapter C or E. Um the entity must have performance at an overall level in the highest or second highest performance rating. Um and that category is defined under TUC chapter 39 um sub chapter C. Um and then the second kind of prong to that um is being instate, right? So the second one is our outofstate operator. So this entity is affiliated with a charter operator that operates one or more charter schools in another state. The affiliated charter operator must have that same performance of an overall level that is compared to the highest or the second highest um

015in the performance category that's listed out in TEC chapter 39. So the entity must operate that charter school um program that is currently implementing um the at the affiliates um charter operator that's the existing school. So there's no um there's more details that kind of outline the eligibility um listed in the instruction and guidance and that is going to really be your your best bet to go read about which eligible entity you fall into. Um so Sarah's going to talk a little bit about that on the next slide, but it's super important you start there. Um looking at the instruction and guidance and seeing which path you fall into. Um so I'm going to turn it over to Sarah. So, she's going to talk a little bit about how to access those documents, the application

016and the instruction and guidance. >> Thank you, Britney. So, the first thing I want to make sure that um we say is that all of the documents that we're reviewing today, they will be posted as well as the recording from this webinar. Um we will post them after our final session next week. So, probably not this coming week, but the following week, you should see these documents posted. This will take you directly to our charter applicants page. And that's really going to be the hub for you all as applicants um that you're going to want to make sure you're digging through um in order to make sure you're accessing all of our applications. So on the next slide, what's going to happen is we're actually going to walk through a video. It's going to take

017place on the charter applicants page, which I'm sure you're familiar with because you all registered for our session today um accessing that page. So, it's just going to show you how you can access your instructions and guidance document that Britney was referring to and also the narrative document that you'll need to fill out as you're working through the application. Okay. So, now I'm going to walk you through how you can access that high performing entity application. So once you're on the charter school applicant page under subchapter D open enrollment charters, you're going to scroll down and determine if you're going to be applying for the high performing entity with the local or instate option or the high performing entity out of state. Once you've decided which documents you need to be using, you can access

018the instructions and guidance document via the web browser. It'll immediately pop up. No need to download anything extra. But for the narrative document, you're going to want to go ahead and click the narrative document. And then you're going to receive this warning. If you see this, that's okay. All you need to do is go ahead and save the document to your computer. Once you've done that, you might see this popup right here, the download files. Do not open it from that. Instead, you're going to open your file explorer. You're going to find your downloads and then you should open it from your file explorer and then that will give you the narrative document that you're going to be able to fill out um within the fillable PDF. Okay. So, it's really important that you're one

019able to access this document. John, you can move to the next slide. Um and that's why we kind of takes it step by step so that you know how exactly to um if you get that warning, it's not that big of a deal. save it. If you're still having troubles at the end of this presentation, we will give you all of our emails and you can definitely email us to make sure that you have access to it because we want you to have it at as soon as possible. So, if you haven't already accessed it today, right after this meeting, you should be able to access it. So, now we're going to talk about what are the parts of the application package. Um, because as you look through the documents, you're going to recognize that

020there are a bunch of different components. And so to understand the application process, it's really really important um for you to make sure you know what makes up the application package for the high performing entity. For this um high performing entity application, there are five key components with an optional six component that we're going to talk about. And the first thing you're going to want to know is the instructions and guidance documents. Similar to how Britney alluded to it, this is your road map to the entire application process. It houses key dates, instructions, and the evaluation criteria on which you're going to be evaluated on. You have that right now. It's inside of the instructions and guidance document. The next document is your narrative document. And this is really the heart of your application. It

021contains every narrative question that you're going to be required to complete as well as housing all of the attachments that you will need to submit. So accessing the narrative document is pertinent to do that sooner rather than later. The next thing that we do like I named is we have the attachment cover sheets. They're going to provide all of the relevant instructions um that you will need and this is housed inside of the narrative document. The fourth document that you have is the financial plan workbook. This is an Excel workbook and you'll start it as an Excel and you'll turn it in as an Excel. Um, and this will this is meant to really supplement your budget narrative and your financial plan to really give a well-rounded picture of that financial plan. As a high

022performing entity applicant, you are also required to submit your portfolio overview workbook. This is also um a Excel workbook that you'll start as an Excel and you'll submit as an Excel and we'll talk more about that later. Um, but this will allow us to help determine your eligibility. Lastly, in accordance with the Senate Bill 569, you'll notice we have added an optional attachment for any applicant who would like to apply for a full-time virtual or a full-time hybrid campus. And we'll have the director of special projects dive deeper into this later on through our sessions. Um, but just know that there is a new virtual addendum that has been added. um and that this is an optional um addendum or attachment that you can complete should you decide that you want to go the full-time

023virtual or full-time hybrid route. Okay, so now that you know what are the components within your application, we really want to take a moment to dive into the narrative document. Like I mentioned, this is really the heart of your application. Um, it's the one of the most important documents for your application because it houses every single one of your narrative responses. Um, and it will provide you the links to all of the attachments in which you will be asked to complete. So, it's really important that you can access it. And now, I know I showed you a video, but I'm going to say it verbally just for anyone who is an auditory learner. In order to access this document, the first thing you want to do is navigate to our charter applicants page. Once you've

024done that, you will download the generation 31 narrative document. Whichever one you choose, either the local or the in I'm sorry, the out of state. You'll save it directly to your desktop. And then you'll open it through your file explorer in your downloads and then you should be able to access it. If you don't do it that way, then you will get the warning and you might think that you can't access it. So definitely make sure you're reviewing that video if you need some more support. Once you're able to access it within Adobe PDF, you'll notice a couple of things. One, it's a fillable word a fillable document. It's a PDF document. Um, so you'll type your narrative responses directly into that document. The second thing is it has expandable response boxes. So you might

025look at it and say, "Oh, that's not enough space for me to type my stuff in." um as you begin to type through it, it will expand and adjust to whatever you have given that you're within our word limit. And then also note that you're going to need to refer back to the instructions and guidance document to view any helpful terminology and evaluation criteria. The instructions and guidance document is a very lengthy document. I think for a high performing entity, it's around 42 pages. It is still very very important that you go through everyone because at the very very end of the document you will see an entire section full of resources like verbiage terminology um and every single evaluation criteria that you're going to be evaluated on. So I know it looks daunting but

026it is very important that you start there and then work through that narrative document. Before we move on to the next um the attachments process, I want to make sure that we look and see any questions popping up about the narrative document, how you view this document, or the format of the document. I don't see anything at this moment, so we're going to keep going through. Reminder that if you do have any questions, you can put them in the Q&A. Okay, so now that we're um we've talked about the narrative document, this slide explains to you how you can view and complete the attachment documents in your application. The first thing you'll want to know is where to find them. All of your attachments are actually hyperlin within the narrative document. They're linked in multiple

027places. So within the um narrative document, at the very start of the document, there's going to be a page called um check attachment checklist page. And every single one of the attachments that you are required to as well as the optional addendum are going to be linked there for you all. Within those attachments, they will each have a cover sheet. They have they provide the specific instructions on how you will need to complete your attachment. The attachment cover sheets must also be submitted with whatever corresponding documents that you need to submit. Additionally, some of the attachments are going to be fillable forms. In the instance that they're fillable forms, you don't need to attach any corresponding documents. You'll actually type directly on to that um PDF fillable form for that specific attachment. And then, like

028I mentioned with within the application um package, there are going to be attachments that are Excel worksheets. And so, it's really really important that you're one completing them in the Excel workbook. and then you're submitting them as an Excel um just to make sure that we're able to give that to our reviewers in the proper format. Key thing from this is all of your attachments are linked inside of your narrative document. Any questions before I move forward? Okay, I don't see any Q&A. So, now that you know your big pieces, your narrative and your attachment document, let's talk about your drafting period. What does that look like for you all? So, coming back to our timeline, you'll notice you'll have roughly four months. And actually, for this first one, it's a little bit more truncated

029um because your first um submission for January is going to be in October. So, you got about three-ish months to submit that to complete all of the requirements for this application. And we'll briefly go over some of the most important questions that you'll encounter while you're drafting your proposal. The first one being is how many applications do you complete? Are there enrollment limitations? Do you notify anyone that you're applying? And what about public meetings? Um so we'll briefly discuss each of these um as well as the role of selecting instructional materials um during the drafting process. So the first thing we want to talk about is your application phase. To answer the question, an applicant needs to submit only one application. Even if you want to have multiple campuses, um you will just need to

030submit one application because if awarded, you're actually becoming an LEA, the local education agency. So, the LEA will operate one or more campuses within the first five years of its is of its existence. Um depending on what you state in the application. So yesterday in some of our sessions we had a ton of questions about well what if I want to expand um after the fifth year like I I want to have one campus now but then later on I want to have two campuses but it's after the fifth year. We are only looking at the first five years. So make sure that anything that you are writing within your application it's happening within that first five years. The next thing is the charter school board will govern all of the campuses that were authorized

031through the application process. So, it's really important to know that the board that you're creating now will be the board that is going to be the charter school board. Um, but the new charter is limited to the number of campuses stated in the application. So, then we talk about what does that look like for expansion? Once the charter decides to expand, whether by adding grade levels, extending maximum enrollment or geographic boundaries, those are called expansion amendments and they excuse me and they are governed by a separate process that would happen after you are awarded a charter. Expansions cannot be effective until the fourth year of a new charter school in operation and they are granted by the commissioner based on your school's performance and financial health. Um, so this kind of just walks you through

032from application phase all the way to being awarded um, and what it looks like if you would want to admit. We're going to shift gears a little bit because one of the most important parts of your application and which will um, you know, be looked at with a lot of scrutiny is selecting your instructional materials. Um, we want to reiterate some expectations and information around the instructional material requirements for charter school. To be very clear, charter schools have the ability to design, select, and implement instructional materials at the local level. However, charter schools must still cover 100% of the TEICSS, which is the Texas essential knowledge and skills that form the foundational curriculum in Texas. Here at the agency, we've provided many resources to guide in planning TICS aligned materials, but the agency in recent

033years has also created the open education resources, also known as the OEER, we love our acronyms here, which are free for public use and have been evaluated through the rigorous vetting process called the instructional materials review and approval process, also shortened down to the IMRA process. So, it's really important that one, regardless of which um instructional materials you're choosing or if you're choosing to craft them on your own, that they are 100% TEICSS aligned. But we're going to talk a little bit more about the IMRA materials on this next slide. So, the IMRA, the new instructional materials review and approval process, it replaces the former um state board of education proclamation and the Texas resource review. So, if you've been around like me, um we used to use the Texas resource review to check how

034aligned, how um how much of the TEICS are being covered in certain materials that now has moved to EMRA. IMRA uh was enacted under the House Bill6005 and brings new components to sing to a single SBOA govern instructional materials. So, if you even tried to go to the Texas review resource, it's going to automatically direct you to the IM Recycle. Instructional materials in the IMRE cycle are reviewed for not only the coverage of the relevant preK guidelines, the English language proficiency standards, um, Texas essential knowledge and skills, as well as the quality and suitability based on SBOE approved rubrics. Um, lastly, all SBOE approved instructional materials are considered highquality instructional materials. And this is an important word for you or also HQMI because it's referenced multiple times throughout our narrative response. So now we're going

035to look a little bit about the highquality instructional materials. I referenced it on the last slide. Um but you like I said you're going to either see it as highquality instructional materials or HQIM. Um but just know that these two are used interchangeably. HQIM is a researchbased initiative here in Texas to offer extremely high quality proven materials that really enhance the student learning um and remove some burdens from the teachers to create all of the instructional materials with best practice requirements. So here in the center is the definition of HQIM. I'll give you about 20 seconds to just read it. I'm sure you're very familiar with it, but just in case. Also note that it's it is restated in the application school design section um and in the instructions and guidance document. It is referenced

036a multitude of times. Please know that just identifying an adopted or reviewed material through TEA provided resources is a good start, but strong application narratives really demonstrate their knowledge and familiarity with the selected materials and how that is going to enhance your school model. So, making sure that you you and your team who decides it, you really have a strong foundation for why you've chosen the materials and not that it's just stateboard approved. Any questions on HQIM? Please note that on the slide deck that we have here when we post it, all of the links to the websites that I've referenced will also be there for your convenience so that you're able to access them. I don't see any um questions, so I'm going to keep pushing us forward then. Um, one of the big

037things that we always get asked about is um how can we reach out to you? what kind of supports do you all offer during this very truncated timeline? Um, and so what I'll note is that one, during your application drafting, we do have a no contact rule um in place. Um, however, we do offer some specific supports and office hours. What you'll notice is that our supports are really in terms of the timeline are geared towards our traditional subchapter D&E. Um, but feel free to look through which ones were being offered. Again, they're located on the charter applicant um page and please register for them. They're optional for you all to attend. I highly recommend them, especially I'm going to put a slight plug for the virtual addendum one that's happening on September 3rd. Um

038that link is already ready for you to be able to register for. Um so yes, so let me back up a little bit. Please know we're here to support you through this time, but I just want to make sure that you know that there are already supports posted right now that you can sign up for. Um, when we do interact with you until uh all applications are are turned in and submitted, please note that we cannot offer you specific competitive advice about your school model. Um, what would be better? We can't give you those kind of things. What we can do is make sure you can access all materials. We can make sure that you have everything that you need from our end to be able to um complete your application. and then we can

039make sure that you have the supports that we're able to provide within our support seminars. So like I named these are optional support seminars. Um they will start uh note there is a typo on the side. It actually starts August 27th is going to be one of our support seminars. Um again all updated information is posted on the charter application page. Um and all of the dates are there with the links for registration. And additionally, we do also have office hours that will be coming up. Um during this time, an the office hours are more informal, if you will. Um we'll be there to answer any kind of technical questions. And what we've noted through the past is that it's also a good time for applicants to come and hear other questions that are being

040asked. Um so really just use it as a collaborative space for applicants. Um and those will begin in September and those dates are also listed. You do not need to register to attend an office hour. Um, and office hours are open to any of our applicants. Before I move forward, are there any questions about communication and supports that are provided um by the new schools team? Perfect. And I will like to also name that the support seminars are not just the new schools team um, you know, giving you all this information. We really have coordinated with all of the content experts. So any of the things that you see on there, we have reached out to content experts to make sure that you're getting the most accurate up-to-date information. Um, if there are no more

041questions, then I'm going to pass it over to John to talk about how you can submit your application. >> Thanks, Sarah. I don't see any questions, so I'll go ahead and keep it moving and talk a bit about uh actually submitting the application. Um so for the next few minutes we're going to talk about when is the application due um what documents are actually going to be included in that final um application submission. How are you going to compile um the few attachments that um are required for high performing entity applicants and then also obviously where you're going to submit it. So in terms of the application submission um as Britney indicated earlier you kind of have two pathways. um you'll either have that October uh application submission deadline or the November. All right. So,

042in terms of what you're actually going to submit, um this is going to really vary and depend on how you are coming into the process and which application you fill out. Um at minimum, at bar minimum, um every applicant, both out of state as well as local, are going to have at least three attachments. That's going to be uh three submission documents rather. That'll be your narrative response document. Your attachments attachments submission document. We'll get to that on the next slide and your financial plan workbook. So regardless of anything else, all applicants will have at least three documents to submit. Um, as Sarah indicated, there is the um addendum. If you do choose to or propose to open at least one virtual um or hybrid camp uh full-time or hybrid campus, you will have to

043complete that addendum, which will make your submission documents four. If you um are out of state, you will be submitting the portfolio overview workbook. That will bring um your submissions to four as well. And then to confuse you all, if you all are going to um be out of state, you'll have that portfolio overview workbook and the addendum. So that will lead that will bring you to five submission documents. I'm going to pause there and make sure if you have any questions about this, feel free to ask. Okay. All right. Right. So on the previous slide I did talk about that attachment submission document. Um ultimately what that is um the high performing entity application has significantly fewer attachments. Um so this is not as big of um of an issue. However it is important.

044So let's talk about it. Um of the attachments that you have you will not be submitting all those attachments separately. So of the eight or nine attachments that you all will have to complete um you will not give us eight or nine separate documents. What you want to do, and the end goal will be, is to take all of those attachments, including the attachment cover sheets. Um, you're going to want to compile all of those one way or the other, into one document. And that one PDF document is what we would like. We want one document with all your PDFs combined in it. So, we see that happening in one of two ways. Um, traditionally, people tend to just print all of their documents out. So all of the attachments, all the cover sheets, they

045put them in order, they compile all of those. Um, or for those who are a little bit more techsavvy and a little bit technically proficient, you can also, if you know how to, you can combine those uh digitally, electronically uh through Adobe or some other format or program. So either way, doesn't matter to us. Um, so if you print, as I said, you're going to take all those prints, you're going to combine those into one single stack. Basically, if you do it electronically, obviously you're going to have one file. What we ask you to do is also pagenate. So, you're going to take that huge stack of paper copies of your attachments and you're going to you can you can handr write if you'd like uh handwrite or insert, however you want to do it.

046Pagionate all of the attachments, including the attachment cover sheets. If you do it digitally, obviously you're gonna have to find a way to digitally include and uh all the page numbers, excuse me. So, if you print the papers out, again, you'll have a huge paper stack. You have already pagenated them. And then you're going to go wherever um or if you have a scanner at home, you're going to scan all those documents into one PDF. Again, if you do it uh v uh digitally, you have it. It's you're done at that point. So once you have that one PDF document, you're going to submit that document. However, the workbook and or the portfolio overview workbook, financial plan workbook or the portfolio are both going to be Excel files, right? So you're going to have the

047one big PDF with all the attachments with the exception of the financial plan workbook, which you will download as an Excel, complete as an Excel, submit as an Excel. If you have to do the workbook, the portfolio workbook, same thing, right? So, you're going to submit it as an Excel of which you downloaded and completed it um in. So, those will be that's how you're going to submit your attachments. So, let's talk a bit about the review process. Britney um uh generally alluded to that. We do have a completion check process and uh the formal review process. Um the specifics of the timetable on that will vary obviously depending on when your application submission date is. We'll talk about that in a second. But in general, we do want to talk about what happens after

048we submit that after you submit that application. Um how and what are you eligible to fix um or remedy um if there are deficiencies in that initial submission. Um how is your application evaluated? and then more importantly what happens after that review process. All righty. So in terms of completion check again so October comes around you submit your application or November comes around you submit your application um our team at that point will initiate that uh initial completion check process. The ultimate goal again is just to ensure that you are both eligible to um proceed in the application process as well as providing us a complete application. Again the having a complete application obviously gives you all and maximizes your chance for success um if we have as much information about you as possible. So

049first step in that journey is to just confirm that you are eligible. Um the big one as again as Britney mentioned is a time electronic submission. So you all will follow the link in the instructions and guidance document to a um it's called share file. Um it's it works very much like Dropbox or any other sort of like cloud-based information sharing software. In that you will upload it and it will provide us a timestamp. Um and we'll get to that on the next slide. But by and by, we will confirm whether or not that was submitted on time. Um, if it's applicable, we will also need to confirm your tax exempt status. We will run plagiarism check, which is extremely important, especially as and that we work in education. And then we will also ensure

050that narratives are complete and I will uh touch upon that here in a second. We'll review or review your attachments, make sure that those are all complete and each attachment meets the basic requirements of what each of those cover sheets was asking you to provide in those attachments. Um, we'll ensure that you have signed all your and initialed all your letters of special assurances and then notifications. And so the notifications um again I it is very possible that a couple of you all in the audience today were prior applicants for new operator and in that you may remember having to send formal notifications to specific elected officials, superintendent, board of trustees etc. um since last year um that process has now transferred and ownership is transferred over to the agency and so we will at

051this point um take the information that you provide in your application and then we um in turn as a team will handle notifying those um elected officials etc. So that is no longer under you all's responsibility or ownership. Okay. So, you've submitted your application. We've gone through the completion check. You will either get a letter saying, "Congratulations, you are complete. You're moving on um into the next round of the application process." Or you will get a letter saying that there are some deficiencies in your application. And depending on the deficiency will dictate what the letter will say. Most of the time that letter will say that you have we've identified deficiencies that are eligible to remedy or cure. Okay. Um those might be we've noticed that you did sub not submit this specific thing within

052your attachments. Please provide that. However, there are two um big pieces that would certainly render you all ineligible and that letter would then say you're being removed from the process and those deficiencies are not eligible to cure. Those two would be late submission. Uh so whichever date your applicant team decides it is due by 5:00 p.m. that day. What does that mean? That means at 501 it is late. If it is at 5:02 it is late. And so we use the timestamp of submission. So not the time that you initiated the down the upload. So, it will give us a time stamp for when the documents were successfully completed and uploaded. So, we need those documents no later than 5:00 p.m. And the next one are missing responses. And this is important. Um, again, as

053an applicant, 99.9% of the narrative questions should be applicable and uh ne necessitate a response. And so at that point if we are noticing in your submission that there are significant number of narratives missing or responses rather missing then at that point we can and do reserve the um authority to at that point remove you from the process just based on the fact that your narratives are substantially incomplete. Okay. So for those who are deemed complete whether is initially and or through remedy or cure um those folks will then go and proceed into the data analysis and eligibility uh part of the application process for high performing entities. Um so at that point we will um again ground our analysis in the evaluation criteria which Sarah mentioned is um in the ter terminology resources and

054evaluation section of the instructional guidance doc. Um and then all of those who meet those requirements will move to due diligence period. We will talk about the due diligence period in a second. Um but we also want to talk about the portfolio analysis. So, we do actually take um the workbook and the portfolio overview workbook and we will look at the performance ratings uh listed in there and align them to ensure that it does align or that we're aligning it with the A or B rating of domain one for our Texas standards. I'm going to pause for a second. I just said a lot. Let me make sure. Okay, no questions. Okay. So the due diligence period. So again those applicants that then proceed into the due diligence period. What happens then? Okay. So during

055that time we're doing something similar to an internal analysis. Um so we will at that point review uh the financial plan workbook. We will do an assessment on the governance information that's been provided, your education plan that you're proposing, and then obviously ensuring that your application barring any potential contingencies preliminarily would meet any legal compliance uh that would be of concern. In addition to that, um the agency will also reserve the right to uh request a school site visit if needed or determined. Um also meeting with you whether it's in person and or virtual. And then we also reserve the right to interview any current authorizers to um have a conversation with them about your portfolio. All right. So in terms of what happens after that and during the due diligence period we just discussed

056what happens after that again will be dictated upon when you submit your application. So for a January approval, so for those who submit in October, um that due diligence period will happen in November. The commissioner then will propose the award um in late November. And then you all, should you move forward, will then be attending that January 2026 state board of education meeting uh which Britney explained and described. If you submit your application in late November, um it shifts a bit. The commissioner then will propose uh those awards in February and then you would be required to attend that April state board of education meeting. And as Britney said, the that's the state board's uh legal and lawful opportunity to um discuss with you any particulars about your application and then deliberate and decide to

057either um take no action, meaning to endorse you moving forward to get a charter or uh exercise their veto power to which you would then be removed from the process. Um and then obviously Britney outlined the charter startup year, the start year. So again, if you submit in January, you have the opportunity to begin August 2026 or beyond. And um should you seek an April approval, that will shift into August of 2027. I'm just going to end on uh Sarah started it and I'll finish it. Um just in terms of information about the support seminars. Again, the timing of these uh seminars might be affected by obviously your decision to uh submit in October, etc. But nonetheless, uh our first one, our upcoming one will be our first seminar on governance, community engagement, the workbook

058and any best practices um that we can affiliate with that. And then this a bit of a deeper dive and detailed conversation about the CSP grant in September. If you all are able to join, we highly recommend uh attending that special populations uh support seminar um for those who are available and it fits within your application deadline uh meeting that o coming to that October support seminar on curriculum instruction. Oh, all right. Well, I'm at a technical difficulty. Give me one second, guys. All right. Well, not going to waste your time. Um the last piece was just in terms of November um which I don't know is really applicable to you all but again if you are seeking a late November application submission you are more than happy to attend the final steps um support

059seminar where we will talk about and have a pretty robust conversation about best practices um good quality control measures uh that you should take before you actually submit your application. And let me see if I can save the day and at least provide you all our contact information slide. Let's see. Right. Can you all see the contact us? Perfect. Uh if you all want to take a moment, um obviously we will share this out, but if you all want to preliminary write this information down, you're more than happy to. I'll keep this on the I'll share this for about a minute. Uh we prefer that you all if you have to reach out reach out to us reach out to that charter application at tea.t texas.gov email address that is a shared email account. So

060that is guaranteed that Britney Sarah andor I will one of us will see that that email. However, you also are able to reach out to us individually at our individual emails. So whichever is most comfortable for you all. But again as a reminder the process and the the guard rails to which you can reach out I say this you can reach out with any question you want any question you want our ability to answer that question I think is the is the more determinant and so we are unable to answer anything other than technical questions so if you're able if you're not able to open the application if you're not sure about a deadline things like that we can answer but we cannot answer or engage um in any conversation now would personally affect the

061specifics of your application. Um, so with that said, I will be quiet. I don't see any questions. Uh, so Britney, uh, with that said, I'll just go ahead and kick it back to you. Oh, wait, no, we do have a question. Okay, perfect. Um, someone has a question. Could you repeat where we will be uploading documents, what website, and when we submit. Um, so going back to the timeline, it is outlined in our on our uh charter school web page for the app for the application the applicant web page, excuse me. Um, it will show when those deadlines are. Let me see if I can find it. There we go. Okay. So, for some applicants, your application will be due on October 10th. or applicants may submit their application on November 21st. Either of those

062two dates, it's due by 5:00 pm of that day. And in the instructions and guidance document, um you will see um that you will be submitting it to a uh program called a cloud-based program called share file. And we provide that link in the instructions and guidance doc. So it will take you to a share file page. It will ask you to input some very basic information and the instructions and guidance doc actually tells you what information to provide. Um and in that you will simply put the information in and then it will ask you to basically drag and drop your files into that interface and then will automatically um posit it there and then you have to hit the submit button and then it will be officially submitted. So to answer that person's question,

063uh the program is called share file. And with that, I don't see any other questions. >> Thank you so much, John and Sarah. Um you guys covered a lot of great things and I'm glad that question came up so there's no confusion on when it's due and how to submit it. So thank you both. So now we are going to jump into our next section of our presentation. Today we're going to move in to talk a little bit about the virtual components um of the application. So Ann um whenever you're ready you can share your screen, introduce yourself and get started. >> Thank you. Good morning y'all. I'm going to go ahead and share. Okay. Give me a thumbs up if you can see it, please. Thank Yeah. Okay. Thanks. All right. Good morning everyone.

064Um, like Britney said, my name is Ann. Um, last name is Rajan. I am the director of special projects. And, uh, part of that work means that I support virtual and hybrid, uh, instruction here at the agency. And today I'm, um, here to specifically talk about if you all are considering a virtual hybrid campus as part of your application, um, and share a little bit more about that. So as you all know the virtual and hybrid options are new to the application this year and um those words are used in different uh ways. So just want to name uh when we talk about virtual we're talking about um instruction that happens um online mostly and uh students are required to be in person minimally. When we're addressing hybrid in this context we mean that students

065are in person attending um and at sometimes during the day or during the week and then are learning remotely or online the rest of the time. And so we know that in-person instruction um is a good fit for most students and um that is um what is best fit for them. However, for some families, virtual and hybrid models might be uh better suited based on their needs. We see often that districts and charter schools offer virtual hybrid options for a certain uh group of students who require flexible schedules due to um either they are participating in um athletic training as professionals like training for the Olympics. For example, students with mental or mental health needs or medical needs. We have students who um opt into these models for um accelerated instruction or they might just

066need something that's more at their pace. Families look at these options as an alternative for homeschooling um or if they have um high travel needs. So this is just an option that is made available. Um and I just want to showcase some of the um instances when folks might use this. districts tend to and uh charter schools tend to use this as an option for just offering more courses uh to different campuses and being strategic about the staffing. If you have uh folks who are teaching advanced courses and you want to increase the amount of students who could possibly take a course for example and the reason why this is uh possible now is because there was a bill that got passed this uh during the legislative session Senate Bill 569 and it established a

067new framework through which leas or school systems could offer virtual and hybrid um methods of instruction. Um we think of these in three different pieces. One is that you could offer individual courses. So you could offer uh virtual courses um throughout students uh for students or even hybrid courses. And there are these requirements that are outlined in sen 569. So for courses um they have requirements such as you have to like certify these courses are like aligned to the tees. they are uh rigorous and will um meet the mastery requirements for that subject or grade level. The other option is more structured which is um either a program or a campus. So in this instance you think of a brickandmortar campus and within that campus you are offering a structured program where a portion of

068your students are engaged in a virtual or hybrid program and this option is made available. It doesn't require any additional authorization uh to operate as long as that enrollment in that program is less than 50% of the complete u enrollment of that entire campus. The place where we will spend most of our time today is the full-time virtual hybrid campus. In order to establish a campus that follows this model entirely that it does require authorization and through this application um one of the options is to um add the option to offer a virtual hybrid campus and um I'll go into more details on what that um entails. If you do have questions that come up for you, please use the Q&A feature. Um if you feel comfortable leaving an email address where we could u

069respond back if we don't get to it today uh that is that is uh encouraged as well. For those of you are not familiar with some of the terminology I just want to pause and take some time to go over it uh since I will be addressing using these terms throughout. Uh when we talk about synchronous instruction um we are talking about real time scheduled learning between instructors and students where there's some sort of interaction happening. So this would count as a synchronous um model right now if we were interacting with one another. Um so that kind of instruction is allowed. Asynchronous instruction where students are actually accessing instructional materials and assignments more at their own pace. Um, and there's very little in-person scheduled um, sessions with instructors. Um, both asynchronous and synchronous instruction is

070allowed through a program or a campus or even a course. It just depends on how um, the school decides to structure that. Um, when you talk about a full-time virtual program, again, it's an option that is almost entirely online. Um the instructional and content is primarily delivered via the internet either synchron synchronously or asynchronously um again with minimal in-person attendance. When we're talking about a full-time hybrid program in this case the student is in attendance in person for a portion of their instructional time. So a couple ways you could think about this is that you could design a hybrid program where students come in person for half the day. they have in-person courses scheduled and then the rest of the day they are taking their courses virtually or you could have hybrid courses as part

071of the program where students have the same courses but they meet in person some of those days and then they uh maybe meet virtually do asynchronous instruction the rest of the time. So those are just different ways to think about um model design and where that would fall under the definitions we have. Um another term that is going to come up is the whole program virtual instruction provider. So you could decide to partner with a private entity or thirdarty service u to do the management and oversight of the campus or program. And if this is the case, there are parts in the application where we would ask you to like elaborate on who this is and how you came to uh decide on this uh this provider. You're not required to use a provider. It's

072just an it's just an option that um is part of of what we need to collect as part of the application if you do plan to use one. Okay. So, as I mentioned, we're going to focus on virtual and hybrid campuses here. Again, courses and programs can be offered um by the um by the charter school. However, if you want to establish a campus, you have to receive authorization um part through this process. That means you have your own unique uh campus designation number. And when we talk about a virtual campus um it means that or a hybrid campus it means that at least 50% of the students enrolled in that campus is participating in a virtual pro or a hybrid program. The funding for this is uh different than in a in a pro

073in a program or a course where for campuses um it's an enrollment based funding model which means um you it's calculated by the number of students who are enrolled in that virtual hybrid campus and then they're assigned the charter school's average daily attendance if you have other schools or if there isn't then the state ADA rate is assigned to those students. If you're doing courses or programs and don't want to engage in u in in establishing a campus, then your ADA is similar to just how um brick and mortar attendance ADA is where um the students receive say if they're present, they receive um ADA for that day and it's just a little bit more flexibility on how we would uh take attendance for those models. And then another thing that's different for virtual hybrid

074campuses is that once you're authorized to operate, that authorization can use continues indefinitely unless the school receives a DRF rating for the three preceding years. Couple other things. um a newly approved full-time virtual hybrid campus must complete a year of planning prior to serving students and then they must at least have one grade level in which um an assessment such as the star or EOC is going to be administered. I'm only naming a few highlighting a few of those requirements that are outlined in the bill is this is not an exhaustive list. Uh also since uh Senate Bill 569 passes legislative session, we will be engaging in rule making. So more information is forthcoming on these items. If um so if you have very specific questions and things uh please do put it in the

075Q&A if I don't cover it. Um but we we might have to wait on giving you specific information um if we don't have it just yet. There are also some student eligibility requirements um that are different uh for virtual versus a hybrid campus. Um I'm not going to read out all of it, but one of the things is that for a student to be eligible to enroll in a full-time virtual campus. Uh they have to have attended public school in the state for a minimum of 6 weeks um in the current or preceding school year or or they are enrolling for the first time in public school and it's um it's their first grade year or a lower grade level. And then there are a couple other requirements there as well. Uh full-time hybrid for

076a full-time hybrid campus, a student who's eligible to enroll in a public school um is eligible to enroll in a hybrid campus. So there's a distinction there for virtual versus hybrid campuses for student eligibility. Just want to mention again that the authorization for these campuses again continues indefinitely unless it's revoked for very specific reasons such as um getting an unacceptable performance rate for uh the preceding 3 years. um there's some sort of special investigation uh that is like brought forth or like I mentioned earlier if um there a a private or third party entity is chosen as like the operator and they are determined as ineligible then that would um that would revoke the authorization of uh a campus that is using it unless an alternative provider is approved by the commissioner. So, if you're

077considering applying um for a virtual hybrid campus, I would uh recommend being familiar with a few things um as you're completing the application. One is the to read the text of Senate Bill 569. As I mentioned, I um I went through quite a few requirements, but it is more outlined in more detail in the bill such as uh professional development requirements for teachers. Um what are the rights of students who want to participate and uh and details of such. So really encourage you to look at that bill and that text in that that outlines it. Um the instructional guidance document um includes more detailed information. and it also includes the terminology we went through today um that might it would be helpful to review as you're filling out the application. Um there's also an addendum

078that is required to be completed for if you're planning on offering a virtual hybrid campus. These are questions that are specific to the virtual hybrid campus that is not uh captured in the application and other pieces. So um that is added in there and there's also an assurance document that is specific for virtual and hybrid campuses that is included uh for um for this option as well. Now I mentioned that there is an addendum. There's if you are planning on offering a virtual or hybrid um instructional model as part of your design um in your narrative as you are answering the questions uh if there are specifics that would apply to a virtual hybrid campus we please do add that in your in your narrative document as well. um just it it does not uh

079specifically say hey if you're applying for a virtual hybrid campus please write this in addition. So this is just because it's not everyone is not required to do that but if you are considering this option then please do include that in your narrative responses as well. This is just a screenshot of what the addendum is for the virtual and hybrid uh campuses and they go into more detailed on the instructional model and information around that. So they're very much catered to like you know what is the curriculum instructional practices. There's some uh questions around the operations for these models as well. So um again um reviewing SP 569 and the criteria in the instructional documents would help um with filling this out. There's also a section on the whole program provider. If again if you

080choose to go that route or you're considering that then there's information around like what um what kind of services would you uh partner with the third party on? Is it um is it partly or is it a full management uh sort of partnership? And that's the kind of information that we will look into as part of the review for this um application for full-time virtual campuses. Um that's all the information I have. If you have questions, uh please do drop it in the Q&A and if you can't answer it in real time now, then we will get back to you if you include an email with that. With that, I'm going to stop sharing. I hope that was helpful. kind of. >> Yes, that was great. Ann, thank you. There is one question in the

081chat. >> Yeah. So, um, is a full-time virtual campus option an add-on to a regular campus? So, I'm assuming when you say an add-on, you mean like could we offer that as a program where a subset of the students are participating at a brick and mortar campus? Um, in that case, yeah, you could offer it that way. If if you want to offer a standalone um you could have a virtual a hybrid campus on its own. Those are two different ways of doing the the model. >> Awesome. Well, thank you so much Ann. Um we really appreciate your time today and if we get any more questions we will um hold those and send them over. Um but you also I know you have shared your contact information as well. Thank you so much. We

082appreciate it. All right. So I think we are all caught up with questions as of right now. Um we are going we're about 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Um so I think for the the sake of all people we take a little 5 minute break stretch our legs and then at 11 11 at 10:15 um we will pop back and we will do our presentation to talk about the financial plan workbook. Um so four minutes now. Um, and we'll you do not have to leave the the Zoom. You can just turn turn your mute off, whatever you need to do. But we'll start back with our next presentation at 10:15. 15. All right, everybody. I'm going to give you about 30 more seconds to come on back. Okie dokie. Let's go ahead and get started.

083So, this won't take too long. Um, for the next maybe 10, 15 minutes, we're just going to talk a bit about the financial plan. Um, which for you all really rests in the financial plan workbook. Um and so the purpose of this workbook um the purpose of providing you this very robust budget um and very thorough budget to fill out really is um to allow us to see that you all can demonstrate uh financial readiness um that uh just the compliance piece. want to see that this budget can demonstrate like a real structured planning. Um, and then obviously just that this budget is not only viable but it's kind of longitudinally viable. Um, so with that said, there are three big buckets to which uh you all will be interfacing with within the workbook. Um,

084the first one is enrollment and attendance projections. uh the workbook itself will autoc calculate the state aid uh entitlements um that you all would get in those scenarios where you meet those enrollment projections. And it's also with regards to enrollment. This tool this this workbook is a really good tool um to just kind of understand the impact of enrollment um on that viability because again as we'll look into the workbook um itself, you're more than welcome to just sort of play with it really figure out how it works. you can put one student in and see like what does one student versus 20 students look like in terms of funding, how much of a deficit will we be at if we come up short with our enrollment, etc. Um the workbook also explores and requires

085you all to uh demonstrate and identify your personnel plans, how you're going to um staff your school, um associated salaries, uh things like that. However, you also have to go an extra step and provide us um those payroll taxes, benefits, and any other contracted services that you would probably propose in conjunction with your own baseline operations. Speaking of operations, um you also have to provide those operational expense planning. Um and as you will see here in a minute when I show you the workbook, um it is very itemized. Um so just but not limited to supplies, textbooks, equipment, uh rent, student testing, etc. And then also obviously this budget is not just for one year. So you will project that out across the uh five years of the contract should you get awarded. All righty.

086So let's take a deeper dive into the actual workbook. Can I get a thumbs up that you all can see the workbook? Perfect. Okay. For those who have not ever actually looked into our financial plan workbook, uh you will initially see on the bottom several tabs. Um just to ground our conversation, the green tabs are tabs that you identify that is up to you as the applicant to insert data into. Okay? So green, that's you. blue are just rollup tabs that are projecting uh calculations based on the information that you put in the green tabs. So this will make sense in a second. So green for you, blue more or less for us. That said, there are other tabs. There's the cover sheet um which is currently here. Um this will provide just some highle

087uh just overview of the attachment, the requirements, the expectations and furthermore um it will provide to you here a reasonable planning estimate of what you can expect to get per student. So that $7,533 are for students who would be enrolled as a kindergartener up to uh grade 12. And then if you were proposing early education or prek, then you would be halfday funding. Uh so you would be budgeting roughly $3,776. Okay. Um I will not necessarily discuss the CSP stuff just because we have a presentation here in a little bit to uh dive deeper into that. Uh highly encourage you all to look very closely at this general instructions tab. This will provide some very nuanced instructions, some best practices, and just some reminders in terms of what cells should work, what shouldn't work, uh

088things like that. Also extremely important and needs to be 110% correct when you submit it is the school info tab. Um so you will obviously put the the applicant information here, but you'll also need to kind of determine as an entity when your fiscal year is going to um end. And then also you will need to input the total number of uh minutes that will be within your school year. So that leads me to uh one of our first tools, our supplementary tool, supplementary tools are the red triangles and some of the cells. You will notice them pretty quickly once you start going through the workbook. uh these are just going to provide some pretty quick tips about uh information about what's within that cell or expectations that we have uh for what you need

089to put inside that cell. So here this is just talking about instructional minutes and the 75,600 uh minimum that we have here in the state of Texas. So again, we encourage you to read all of these just so you are as informed as you can be in filling the workbook out. All righty. So the first big big big tab is the enrollment tab. Uh and as you will see enrollment in our workbook again stretches across all five years of the initial contract. So again in Texas if you receiving a charter um you will receive a charter initial charter for five years. Um so that five-year term we expect to see enrollment projections both in terms of uh rate of students but also in terms of the grade distribution. One important note about this um on

090the off offset on the onset is this. If I put a 100 students here, I need to see a 100 students in the narrative. So the narrative doc al the narrative document that you're filling out also requires you to outline uh enrollment projections pretty much just like what you see here. These numbers need to match. Um some applicants like to demonstrate um being conservative with their budget by inputting a lower enrollment in the workbook. um we ask that you don't do that, but if you do do that, you're not going to be penalized for it, but we need you to make note somewhere that that's what you did because otherwise we don't know if that's a mistake or if that was again you trying to be conservative in your estimates. Um so needs to match

091and or you need to leave a note as to why they don't match. And I'll show you where to leave that note in a second. Okay. So again, you'll fill this out um as again as your your school determines or your proposal determines. Uh the next thing that you will also identify um is the attendance rate, the average daily attendance. And so here again we see a red triangle. So this means you can get some information about what to put in here or expectations. So here it's showing that we are actually um you do not have to do it but we're highly suggesting that you start at a conservative estimate of 85%. Do we see 85% across all applicants? No. Um sometimes we see 95% 90%. But we are recommending you start at a conservative

09285%. And then as you scroll down this tab, you will see that you'll still have to also project enrollment across different student groups. Uh again, special education obviously. And then as you see there are data, I'm sorry, rather um supplementary notes here to help you again kind of guide you as to what the expectations are here. uh CTE, career in technology, dyslexia, pregnancy, uh bilingual, ESL, compensatory education, comp ed, early education, gifted and talented, and also transportation. So, all of these things are uh required fields for you to have to fill out. Moving on, personnel. Um I've already prefilled this out just so you can see. So we want to see personnel from for all five years, not just the first year, not just the startup year, but for all five years including the startup

093year. So you will input the position description and then you still have to categorize that position. So here you can pick the appropriate one. You'll include your salary, how many FTEES that position will represent. You can shift that up and down according to your year. So maybe in year one, I just my my principal will be half will be a halftime FTE, but in year three, they will be a full-time, right? So you can play with how and when and what years your um your personnel or those staffing positions will be brought on or hired for. Um we also ask that you account for any yearly raises um again across that year-over-year. So that's the personnel and then the startup year one and assumptions tab. So this tab has a few blue items and those

094blue items mean that you they are locked and you are unable to um adjust those. Those are also autoc calculating from other um cells and other tabs. So here it's saying that I have about almost $2 million in state revenue based on the enrollment that I included. Here I will put how much I am budgeting for the CSP grant and any other federal revenues that I'm expecting or assuming and then local revenue. Again that might be grants, philanthropic funds, etc. Again, what am I assuming? And then over here before I go down you'll see there are notes in column O. So, under total revenue services, uh, to total state revenue, excuse me. Again, if you under enroll your budget to show a conservative budget, please note that here if you can remember. If not, again,

095that's okay. We'll just clarify at a later date. But if you can remember it, it will help us just discern between again a mistake or an intentional just attempt to make a more conservative budget. Okay. In this tab, you will also outline and itemize all your expenses. Again, some of them will auto feed from the other tabs or other cells on this tab. So, you have instructional personnel costs, non-instructional personnel costs, and as I said during the slide deck, you'll also have to talk about payroll taxes, benefits, all that stuff. And then lastly, contracted services, school operations, facility operations. Again, it's a very nuanced and very itemized budget, but it's important that we see your plans across the five years to ensure that you will be viable not only for your first year, but going

096forward. Okay. So, the blue tabs again are just uh rollup tabs. So, these are going to summarize and autocalculate data that you've put in those green tabs. And so, here it's just outlining the revenue structure, expense structure, um, etc. School operations. So more or less this is just a calculation of everything that was put up in this put in the startup your owner assumptions tab and personnel tab the summary of uh finance description. So this is going to break down should if you got awarded this is an estimate of your state aid entitlements right so you could play with this you could put one student in special ed and see like what are your what's what's the funding for that two students etc. you could just put one student uh just period and then you

097could see what your state entitlement would be. So, this is just a tool for you all to use to kind of budget and see what uh how your your state aid would fluctuate depending on how many students you have and what program those students are enrolled in. Same thing with the payment formula example. Again, this will just show you a tool as to what you could expect for your monthly payments to be as um enrolling those students that you were projecting. And then the last tab really is just more for you or for stakeholders. Um really this is just this highle roll up onepage uh 10,000 ft look at your uh financial plan, right? So this might be something you print out and give to again potential um donors, things like that, etc., etc. Um

098but really it's just it's for general use and just for ease of reference. Are there any questions because that is a lot. Okay. Um only other thing I'm going to say about this um workbook and I'll stop sharing is two things. Uh first thing is this workbook is designed to give no data errors. Meaning if you get weird reference cell errors or um other Excel error codes, those are not normal and that means something is something funky is happening with either the data that you're inputting or data that's missing. And so that leads me to my second point. So I actually have three points. My second point then is it is highly recommended that you work from uh left to right. So start with enrollment, move to personnel, move to the startup. Um because each

099tab is feeding off of the previous tab. So there are likely scenarios where if you jump tabs um you might get error codes and then that will confuse you. So, please do not submit a workbook in your final submission that has any error codes in it. They're not supposed to be there. You are more than welcome and happy to call us or email us if you're getting those errors. Um, we cannot tell you what to put in those cells, but we can certainly tell you what cells are feeding that error and then you can at that point review whether or not you put in the right information that's necessary. So if you do, and this is the third point, if you do reach out to us, please, please, please, um, we will remind you in

100any email correspondent you give us, but uh, the more detail the better. If you could give us the tab and the cell number, so reference what cell you're having a problem with and the tab, that will allow us to quickly figure out what's feeding that tab and get you a more accurate um response to your issue. Okay, so that's all I need to say about the workbook. It takes it takes a lot um there's going to be a lot of hard work put into this. Um, but again, it's extremely necessary for us to make sure that you will be able to serve the students of Texas um, with a high level of viability across all those years. Um, with that, I don't see any questions. And so, Britney, that's all I have. >> Thanks, John.

101I appreciate it. Um, that financial plan workbook does usually pose a lot of questions. Um, so like John said, uh, hopefully you kind of saw how the tabs feed into each other. That's always a big question. Um, and if you have a specific question about a cell, just let us know. Um, so we are going to now pop over to our CSP presentation and Chelsea, you should be able to share your screen and start whenever you're ready. Thank you so much, Britney. Give me one second. All right. Um, can you see it? Perfect. Well, hello everyone. Um, it's great to be here today. My name is Chelsea Garcia. I'm the director of resources and support with our division of charter school uprising. Um, and my team works with the CSP grants. We're going to be

102providing um a brief overview of the CSP or the charter school program startup grant. On the call also with me today is Melissa Miner. Um she is our new charter schools program grant manager and her email is listed there. We also have Britney Eldred who is our new charter schools grant specialist and her email is also listed as well as my information. Some additional contacts that work with the CSP grant within the agency as well is Charlotte Worman. um she is our grants manager in the division of grants administration and then Carmen Patrick is our grant negotiator and also in the division of grants administration. Our goals today are really to talk about the purpose um grant timelines allows the funds and goal setting all within the CSP grant and after we cover these items

103we'll have time at the end for any questions. What is the purpose of the charter school program grant? The purpose of the Texas Charter Schools program is to support the growth of highquality charter schools in Texas, especially those focused on improving academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students. So, we'll talk through some grant timelines. So the grant start date is the date that an LEA can start incurring costs related to the grant. And then the NOGA date is the date or that the NOGA or the notice of grant award is approved and the LEA can start entering expenditures for reimbursement. So let's just say campus A spent two months in negotiation and they get their NOGA 2 months after the grant start date. that subgrantee is able to request reimbursement for any expenses incurred from the

104grant start date to the NOGA date during that two-month period. However, all expenses um must be allowable and eligible for reimbursement. And so, if you do end up receiving a CSP grant, please ensure that all of your costs you are planning for um align with the program guidelines for the CSP grant. And we'll go over allowable and unallowable cost later in the presentation. And then we have the grant end date and that is the date by which the LEA must expend funds and utilize items and services purchased with the grant funds. Now just to note, all generation 31 CSP grant awards are subject to availability and eligibility. The completion, submission, and or ultimate award of a generation 31 open enrollment charter schools does not entitle an applicant to CSP funds from the state of Texas.

105The CSP grant is broken into two phases, planning and implementation. So planning activities are related to the planning and program design of the charter's educational program. These activities usually take place during the period from the grant start date to the first day the campus starts serving students. Planning activities cannot occur for more than 18 months. Then implementation. These are activities related to the implementation of the charter's educational program. These activities usually occur between the first day the campus begins serving students and the grant end date. So there's a visual representation there of that planning period, the first day of school, and then the implementation period. Budgeted expenditures are tied to the type of activity and not when the expenditure occurs. So again, planning activities or expenditures that are tied to the planning and design of

106the educational program. And then implementation activities are activities or expenditures that are tied to the implementation of the charter school and the educational program. So with that, some activities are only allowable in the planning phase, some are only allowable in the implementation phase and then some are allowable in both. Certain purchases that are allowable during the implementation phase may be purchased during the planning period. And these will still be budgeted as part of implementation because the phase in which a purchase is allowable is determined by the type of activity and not necessarily when the purchase is made. So an example of this is classroom furniture such as desk or smartboards. These purchases are considered implementation activities but are necessary to purchase before students arrive on campus. So they would be purchased during the planning phase

107even though it is an expense tied to implementation. So here's a visual representation of items or activities that are allowable during planning, implementation or both. So under planning um salaries for allowable positions, contracted services and rent and then implementation, classroom equipment and furniture, equipment installation, textbooks, playground equipment or a bus or a van. And then allowed under both is staff training, administrative furniture and outreach materials. So again, the phase in which an expenditure is allowable is dependent upon the type of activity it is aligned to. So now we'll get into allowable uses of funds. All cost associated with the CSP grant must meet the minimum threshold of being necessary, reasonable, allocable, and allowable. So necessary is the item needed for the startup of the charter school. When filling out the application, ask yourself, is what

108you're proposing to purchase necessary to accomplish the goals you established in your application? Reasonable. Would a reasonable person spend that amount on the item? Would it withstand public scrutiny? So, say you are only going to serve five students, but you ask for $500,000 in admin costs. This would not be necessary or a reasonable request. So, ensure that your outcomes in the application are justified by the amount requested. And then allocable is the cost being incurred specifically for startup and is the cost proportional to the benefit provided and then allowable is the item allowed under this grant program and we'll go over those um in the next few slides. So planning activities um are intended for planning and design of the charter school's educational program, professional development and training for staff and teachers and special education

109support. So moving into allowable costs for planning activities. Salaries are allowed for the following positions only. Teachers, school leaders, and specialized instructional support personnel. So what constitutes specialized instructional support personnel will be clarified in the program guidelines and that are posted along with the grant opportunity on the TEA grant opportunities page. However, certain conditions do apply. Salaries cannot be paid for activities related to ongoing operations. So if personnel split their time between ongoing operation activities and planning activities, only the portion of the time associated with conducting the planning activities is allowable as an initial initial operational cost. The charter school campus must maintain accurate time and effort documents um to document the amount of time each employee works on the task related to planning activities associated with the charter charter school campus. So payroll expenditures

110must be um paid with CSP funds are only allowable for activities that support the planning or program design of the charter campus as planning activities. And then no payroll expenditures are allowed beyond the 30th calendar day after the campus begins serving students. Also allowable costs for planning activities. Contracted personnel may be paid from the grant start date up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students. Reimbursement for contracted personnel is only allowable during the planning phase. And then certain contracted services are allowable in both the planning and implementation phase. And then rental or occupancy costs for the school facility are also allowable up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students. Allowable implementation activities. These are one-time startup equipment purchases necessary to implement a charter school, which may include desk, chairs, computers, equipment

111related to technology, a physical education and art, and playground equipment. Additionally, non-consumable supplies and materials for the startup activities include textbooks, library books, reading materials, and teaching materials um are allowable for implementation activities. These are non-consumable supplies and materials. Um as such, they can be reused and these are eligible for reimbursement and are allowable under this grant. However, consumable materials are items that cannot be reused such as one-time workbooks, pens, pencils, paper. Um, expenses for consumable materials are not allowable under this grant. Also allowable under implementation, the installation cost associated with computers, data systems, networks, and telephone systems. I mean, you could also pay um with our example of the smartboards, pay for the installation of those smartboards in the classrooms. Additional allowable costs for implementation activities, the onetime startup cost associated with providing transportation

112to students, and then cost associated with carrying out necessary renovations and minor facility repairs. Please note that minor repairs neither add permanent value to the property or prolong its intended life. So, some examples of these minor facilities repairers may include repairing a leak in the roof, replacing a broken window, repairing a furnace or air conditioning unit, but again, they do not add permanent value to the property nor prolong its intended life, but rather keep it in oper efficient operating condition. Additional allowable cost are implementation activities, financial management software and training. But please note that software cost must be one-time expenses. If it is a subscription service, it is considered a reoccurring expense and is unallowable. Additionally, property insurance to cover equipment purchased with grant funds and other appropriate non-sustained costs that cannot be supported from

113other sources. So the CSP grant funds will be allocated into planning cost and implementation cost. Please keep in mind the phase in which the expenditure or activity is allowed when creating the budget. And we will show a link on one of the slides where the TA grants opportunities page is to reference, but there is a resource there um that will be the planning and implementation guidance that provides detailed information on how to determine if an expense is allowable and if it's considered a planning activity, implementation activity, or both. So again, the CSP grant supports the planning, program design, and initial implementation of public charter schools. And these are one-time cost. We'll go over some common budget mistakes that we see. So some budget pitfalls include budgeting salaries for personnel other than teachers, school leaders, or

114specialized instructional support. Another pitfall in regards to personnel salaries is budgeting for the reimbursement of salaries in the implementation phase. As discussed earlier, salaries will only be reimbursed um for allowable personnel up to 30 days after the campus begins serving students. Additional pitfalls include including the cost for construction or cosmetic renovations, including expenditures related to charter management, organization fees, and budgeting for expenditures related to ongoing accounting or bookkeeping services. You can purchase accounting software to ensure you meet the F requirements, but you cannot fund ongoing accounting or bookkeeping services. Some example unallowable costs are listed here. This is not a complete list of unallowable cost and the program guidelines will provide you with the complete list. But some examples include religious instruction materials or insignium, ongoing cost associated with transportation for students, construction, consumable instructional

115materials or other supplies and materials, field trips, and then any expenditure in which the charter seeds fiscal authority to a charter management organization. So, if you'd like to look at documents and guidelines associated with this grant, please see the TA grants opportunities page and you can find a marad of resources for the grant grants past which include the program guidelines and funding amounts. Um, so recommend looking at the previous cycle of program guidelines there. Um, so you'll see generation 29 here as an example with those program guidelines listed and then other cycles will have the planning and budgeting guide as well for you. Now we'll talk about the CSP startup grant goal setting that is included in the application. So in a CSP application embedded within your generation 31 application document, you will set three

116to five programmatic smart goals that will be achieved using CSP startup grant funds. All 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. And these are smart goals. So they should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. So we have examples here of some smart goals that include all of those aspects. So these goals are all considered smart and we will use the first one as an example. It is specific in that it identifies the exact instructional strategies that will support the academic model. So it says by December 2024 100% of teachers will be trained in the ABC method instructional strategies to support the academic model. It is measurable

117as you can keep track of what percentages of teachers are trained. It is achievable as all teachers can reasonably receive these trainings. It is relevant to the grant purpose as teachers who are trained in instructional strategies can more effectively teach students and boost their outcomes. And finally, it is timely and that there is a target set date December of 2024. And the progress measure associated with it is a professional development calendar session signin sheets and PLC meeting agendas. All of the goals listed here are aligned to the overall grant purpose and proposed project are necessary for project implementation and are aligned to the academic model and the progress measures associated with them are aligned to the smart goal and would effectively measure progress towards the goal. So I'll give you a few moments just to

118read the rest of those examples here. Now moving on to example two. The goals identified here are not measurable and do not support the academic model overall purpose of the grant. Additionally, most of the progress measures would not effectively measure progress towards the goal and it is unclear how these goals support the project implementation. So example number one, students will be given bench benchmarks in October 2024 and the progress measure is testing logs. So again the goals are not measurable and most do not support the academic model or overall purpose of the grant. Give you a few moments to just review these non-examples of smart goals. That concludes our quick overview of the CSP grant process, but please feel free um to reach out to my team with any questions that you may have. Awesome.

119Thank you so much, Chelsea and Melissa. I don't see any questions in the chat as of right now, but I'll give it just a second. Okay. Well, thank you guys again for all that great information. Um, and feel free to reach out to Chelsea or Melissa with any specific um, CSP questions. Thanks guys for joining us. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, guys. Well, I do not see any questions in the chat. We have already shared our contact information. Um, so if you guys do think of something, um, feel free to reach out to us. Um, if not, we'll see you in some of those support seminars or through email. Um, we are here to support you through this process. Um, just please reach out and let us know if you have anything.

120John, Sarah, anything before we go? Perfect. All right, guys. So, take care. Have a great rest of your day.