Charter School Insider: Lessons from the Nation's Top Charter School Operators

What's the role of the board? How can CEO's and boards best collaborate to achieve shared goals? We sit down with Dr. Garland Thomas-McDavid to answer these questions and more. She highlights the importance of building relationships, open communication, and leveraging the resources and knowledge of the board. Dr. TM also addresses common challenges, such as navigating the transition from a founder...

We sit down with Megan Thomsen to talk all things "day one readiness". It's never convenient to start prepping for next years opening, but with no plan things get messy fast. Megan shares her experiences as the former director of operations at Ednovate driving day one readiness strategy and optimization. If you are an ops enthusiast who is eager to learn more about process improvement methodologie...

In this conversation, Jemia Cunningham-Elder, CEO of North Lawndale College Prep, discusses the importance of being part of the community and developing strong community partnerships. She cites the Peace Warriors program and Phoenix Hall as successful collaborations, underlining the significance of external affairs and ongoing evaluation in partnership sustainability. Interested in sponsorship? Re...

Chad Miller, CEO of Pinnacle Charter School, explores the importance of shared language in leadership, tackling barriers and fostering collaboration. Discover strategies for alignment and growth. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

We sit down with Lana Ewing, Executive Director of the Maine Charter Commission, to discuss her experience as a former operator now running the state authorizing body for Maine charter schools. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

Hiring is hard. Hiring rapidly to support growth of your organization is even harder. We break down pitfalls and learnings to get hiring right as your school grows into new communities. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

We sit down with the Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer of DSST to discuss their experience taking the organization from "fully insured" to "self-funded" as a strategic cost-saving and value creating initiative. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

If I had to cut $100,000 out of my school/network's subscription costs, here is the 7 step process that I would follow and exactly what your team should know if you want to do the same. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

What exactly does a Chief of Staff do? How about one that serves in this role at one of the largest charter networks in California? Tune in to find out! Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

In this conversation, Emily discusses the importance of school food programs and the challenges that school leaders face in providing healthy meals to students Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

Ellen Lin, COO of Green Dot Public Schools National, discusses the implementation of a help desk ticketing and knowledge-based solution at Green Dot. The project aimed to streamline operations and improve efficiency by replacing the use of email for ticketing across departments. Ellen shares the challenges faced, the evaluation process for selecting a vendor, and the fast onboarding and implementa...

We sat down with Raj Thakkar, Founder & CEO of Charter School Business Management, to discuss financial principles for charter schools that have stood the test of time and his new book “Fiscally seCURE: prepare, protect and propel your CHARTER SCHOOL with responsible financial management”.  Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

A five part framework any charter school can use to manage grants. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

What's it like building a Charter Management Organization? We sit down with Colleen Mullen, Founder and Executive Director of Propel to hear about her journey since founding the org in 2019. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

Federal funds are sunsetting. Services and staff have been added to support students the last three years. Now what? We sit down with Daniel Bell of Mastery Charter Schools to discuss how they are working to be mission-aligned as they turn the ESSER cliff into a "gentle hill". Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

If you work in operations you have to manage critical functions across a host of service provides while also balancing internal and external needs. In this episode, Daniel Casselli and Anders Lindgren discuss how to manage vendor relationships and “talk the talk” of food service, IT, transportation, and more (even if you are not an expert). Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@bu...

How do you make decisions and prioritize strategic initiatives through the lens of your organizations mission? We sit down to talk leadership principles with Kennedy Hilario the CEO of ACE Charter Schools in California. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

What's the role of the board in setting strategic goals for your charter school? How should the board think about keeping leadership accountable while also understanding the needs of students and staff inside the classroom? Tune in to hear us discuss these questions and more with Peter Gudmundsson, President of the board for International Leadership of Texas. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out t...

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools recently conducted a nationwide survey of public school teacher sentiment. Tune in to get the Top 5 Takeaways from Debbie Veney, SVP Communications & Marketing at the Alliance - and the author of the report! If you like this episode follow @charteralliance on social media to get the latest from the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools. In...

Ever come across an operational challenge at your school and thought to yourself, "I could build a product to solve this and save thousands of schools time, energy, and effort..." Tune in as David Berg shares his personal story of building ImBlaze as an incubated project within Big Picture Learning. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org

If your school is wondering how to develop a comprehensive enrollment plan, this discussion will be a valuable place to start. We sit down with Bill Knous to talk current trends in the landscape of school enrollment (declining birth rates, distrust in educational institutions, charter growth, etc.) and how community engagement can, and should, be the bedrock of an enrollment strategy. We get into:...

In this episode, we host  Mark Kalpakgian , COO at The Classical Academies, and he shares his lessons learned from ~$100M in bond financing... We dig into: The pros & cons of owning vs. renting your school campuses Due diligence tips when you decide to pursue a purchase The benefits of bond financing: rates, money down, etc. What the bond process might look like for your org Potential risks to...

In less than 3 minutes, here's what you should know about the show and what you can expect from each of our episodes. Interested in sponsorship? Reach out to us at  podcast@buyq.org