Charter School Due Diligence: The Added Value of Partnering with Charter School Capital
At Charter School Capital, our mission is to help charter leaders access, leverage, and sustain the resources their schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. In addition to the extensive toolbox of solutions we provide to help charter schools thrive, another key benefit of partnering with us is the value added by our in-depth due diligence process. We hope that our thorough process can be utilized as just another set of eyes in support of the important work that Authorizers, back office providers, and financial managers are already doing to support charter school success.
Due Diligence
Many of the items we are reviewing in the due-diligence process (to make sure that schools are in compliance with our funding requirements) actually may overlap with the compliance that they have to maintain with the State, their Authorizer, financial manager, or back office provider. This comprehensive due diligence process is just an added benefit that our school partners (and back office providers, authorizers, financial managers) are receiving for free, as partners of Charter School Capital.
That’s not to say that we are focused on highlighting what schools are doing wrong, but rather we’re always solution oriented. Our goal is to help them figure out ways to bring them back into compliance if for some reason an issue has gone unattended.
Another important service that we provide our school partners—at no additional cost— is financial guidance.
Finances
School leaders are experts at educating students but may not always also possess that same expertise around budgets, finances or working with cashflows. But because it’s one of our requirements, we’ll work together with them at no additional cost, to build that out. Once developed, this helps schools foster an understanding of the consistent cash flow they’re striving for because they can now actually see it month by month. This process helps school leaders become more strategic about budgeting and avoid the short-term mistakes that can lead to unintended long-term consequences.
Corporate Governance
We can also provide guidance in various corporate governance areas. For instance, when a school schedules a board meeting to approve various matters or Charter School Capital documentation, the school must meet all open meeting requirements such as notices, quorums and voting requirements. These requirements can be imposed by the Authorizer or by the school itself via its bylaws. As part of our diligence, Charter School Capital reviews all of the conditions and ensures that the requirements are fully and timely met. We can also brief the school on any open meeting requirements that may be governed by State law.
Our team also tracks the school’s charter holder’s corporate status, including State good standings, annual reports, and lapsed entity formation filings. While we cannot file corporate documentation on behalf of the school or charter holder, we can provide reminders when a filing is due or has lapsed.
Ensuring that the school’s charter holder remains in good standing is one of our most important underwriting objectives.
Finally, as part of our standard due diligence, we run various searches that might reveal new or old liens or judgments that the school may not be aware of or have not been timely satisfied. In most cases, these liens collect interest until paid. We can guide the school in how to get the liens or judgments removed, or, in some cases, satisfy them out of the funding proceeds.
These in-depth due diligence processes we have in place for our school partners can also be seen as a value add for Authorizers, back office providers, and financial managers. Providing these additional services to our charter partners is 100% in service to our mission of providing charter leaders with the critical resources they require to spur growth and build more sustainable futures for their schools.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,000,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
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