Petitioner Services

CSS offers consulting services for charter petitioners on either a limited, ala carte basis or on a more comprehensive basis or anywhere in between.  As of February, 2018 Phil has written or played a significant role in the creation of 11 successful charter school petitions including new school petitions, renewal petitions, and merger petitions.

Ala Carte Services. CSS provides specialized services to charter school petitioners at all stages in the chartering process. This may include helping to write one or more individual portions of a charter petition or any number of other types of support. Some of those are:

  • Working with the petitioner(s) to develop and write Measurable Performance Objectives for their charter.
  • Creating a realistic budget and business plan.
  • Developing a governance plan for their school that fits the mission of the school and the community it serves.
  • Comprehensive review of the petition and written feedback/suggestions prior to submission.
  • Developing a media relations plan or engaging the media for specific issues or events at the charter school.
  • Developing positive authorizer relations and maintaining them throughout the petitioning process.
  • Obtaining community input and buy-in for the creation of the charter school that can lead to long lasting and mutually beneficial community partnerships.
  • Research and develop an assessment of need within the community that the charter school is intended to serve.
  • Create a Georgia non-profit corporation to apply for a start up charter school and assist with other aspects of starting a small business.
  • Write applications for public and private start up grants that are available to charter school petitioners in Georgia.
  • Review potential third party service providers such as charter management companies or governance training providers, recommend providers that would be a good fit for a particular charter school, and negotiate contracts with the selected providers.
  • Devise a board development plan and help the petitioner recruit founding board members that can create a successful charter petition that meets the needs of the community.
  • Recruiting and hiring of a school leader.
  • Finding and purchasing fixtures and equipment for the start up of the school.
  • Finding and selecting funding partners for the renovation, construction, or purchase of a facility.

Comprehensive Petitioner Support. In addition to ala carte services CSS can provide comprehensive support throughout all or part of the petitioning process and right up to the opening of the charter school. This comprehensive level of support can include all of the services listed above as well other types of services including writing the actual petition based on the plan supplied by the client. These services are available to both start up and conversion charter schools.

Cluster Conversions, Multi-System Charters, and Charter Systems. Charter School Solutions’ President Phil Andrews was actively involved in supporting the legislation that led to the ability for entire high school clusters to become charter schools in a single petition and allowed for multiple school systems to approve a single charter petition to serve all of the systems involved. In addition, he provided input on the “Charter System” legislation that was proposed by Lt. Governor Cagle and passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2007. Therefore, CSS is poised to take the lead in helping local schools and school systems implement these new chartering opportunities.

State Charter Schools Commission. Phil Andrews follows the State Charter Schools Commission (SCSC) carefully.  He is familiar with Commission staff and the Commissioners.  He attends many SCSC meetings and is familiar with the new online charter application.  Phil is in an ideal position to help petitioners negotiate this new chartering opportunity.