. Learn and share strategies for both surviving the current state budget crisis and planning to sustain high quality programs during anticipated lean fiscal years to come.  We’ll share strategies used by charter schools across the state, including maximization of revenues, cutting costs, mission-based budgeting, and managing the difficult internal and external relations side of lean budgets. [Bs] [Bd]

Worried about covering health care and retirement costs for your employees with prices continuing to skyrocket?  This session distills research conducted for CSDC’s Chief Business Officer training program into practical conclusions you can take away for your school.  Learn about recent legislation and how it affects your school, pros and cons of different types of health care plans, myths regarding benefit pools, projecting cash flow and health care costs, and how schools of different sizes get the most “bang for their buck.” [Bs] [Bd]

Grant-writing and fundraising are often considered daunting tasks. This interactive session will demystify grant-writing and fundraising methods as well as provide tools and guidance to help schools implement realistic fundraising plans. Key topics will include building a fundraising team, implementing successful individual donor campaigns, building and nurturing donor relationships, reviewing critical grant-writing strategies and more. [Dv] [Bs] [Bd]

After-school programs provide important opportunities for positive social development, enrichment, academic improvement, and parent involvement. There are many public and private sources of funding for these programs, making them surprisingly affordable for those who successfully apply and comply. This session will address funding sources (including 21st Century Learning Centers), program and evaluation requirements, and techniques for successful programs. [Bs] [Dv] [Ed] [Bd]

Charter schools functioning as “an arm of the district” for purposes of special education can be vulnerable to sub-optimal funding and service arrangements.  This session will look at the pros and cons of options that can lower costs and/or improve service quality, including creating a consortium to share personnel, gaining greater control (and risk) by becoming an LEA and shopping for a new SELPA. The State Board of Education recently approved expansion of the statewide charter-specific SELPA (or CH-SELPA). Also, the Shasta Charter Special Education Consortium was formed by a group of charter schools and has been spectacularly successful at holding costs while providing high quality service.  CSDC will assemble several of these ground-breakers to explore how these options might work for your school. [Ed] [Bd] [Bs]

We all seek to be excellent, thoughtful, mission driven leaders. Have you encountered dilemmas that keep you up at night, problems with fuzzy outlines that you suspect may be about your leadership? Come learn a simple process, in the company of other leaders looking for new perspectives, that can move your thinking and action to the next level. Come prepared with a 1-page description of a current dilemma that, underneath, may be related to your practice as a leader. You will participate in, facilitate, observe and then debrief a simple facilitation process that will be a valuable tool when you return to school. [Ed] [Bd]

Have you wondered how you might use moments - snap shots- from the classroom of one teacher to develop professional judgment in all your teachers? Come learn how to use a simple process to get thoughtful, complex conversation, deep learning and true collaboration moving in your school. You will participate in, facilitate, observe and then debrief the process, examining how to use simple facilitation tool in your school. Come prepared to fully participate. [Ed] [Bd]

A school leader will present a plan to improve student performance in their school. A process will be used to examine those plans and “tune” the plan to the stated goals. You will get to participate in and then debrief the process, examining how to use this facilitation tool in your school with teachers and student work. Come prepared to fully participate. [Ed] [Bd]

Charter school boards play a key role in the success of a charter school.  Eagle Peak Montessori School and CSDC are collaborating on a year-long project funded by the California Department of Education to conduct a Governance Academy for charter school boards and directors.   Drawing on lessons we are learning from that project, this session will outline key roles and responsibilities of charter school boards.  The session also will include a panel of Governance Academy participants to describe some of the sticky situations faced by their boards and to respond to audience questions about their own sticky situations. [Bd]

Does your school need strategies for working effectively with your authorizer?  One of the primary determinants of whether a charter school succeeds or fails is its relationship to the agency that granted and oversees its charter.   Although the relationship between charter schools and the authorizer has the potential for conflict, the relationship can be positive even during difficult negotiations and sticky political situations.  In this session we will highlight effective strategies for developing and maintaining a positive working relationship between charter schools and charter granting agencies.  [Bd]

What legal pitfalls have gotten charters into hot water lately? Are you familiar enough with applicable law to steer your school clear of trouble? Some of the most difficult struggles that charter schools face involve personnel issues.  This session offers tools and tips to prevent common conflicts from escalating by establishing clear governance procedures and personnel policies.  [Bd] [Ed]

Whether or not charter schools have to comply with California’s open meeting laws, called the Brown Act, is a frequently disputed legal area.   If your charter school board is following the Brown Act, attend this training to learn the myriad rules that apply: Where and when should board agendas be posted and what must they contain?  When can the board go into a closed session?  Also be sure to keep your school board out of trouble by getting to know applicable conflict of interest and public record law.  This session uses role playing to clarify how these laws play out in ambiguous or tricky situations. [Bd]

Writing policies is similar to exercising regularly.  You know how important it is for long term health. But if you’re not in the habit of doing it, starting can seem overwhelming.  This session will help kick your policy drafting into high gear by providing you with tips and strategies for developing and implementing policies that fit your school.  Additionally, you’ll gain an understanding of the many policies that your school might adopt, using a policy checklist to assist you in developing a policy drafting plan. [Bd]

Employer surveys continue to reveal gaps between the skills they need and the skills prospective employees bring.  Traditional textbook learning often does not do enough to prepare students for well-paid jobs – often the kinds of jobs needed to keep the U.S. economy strong.  Charter schools can use their greater freedom to take advantage of teaching strategies and approaches that develop versatile skills.  This session will look at these methods – while highlighting the role of technology – and how they engage student interest and prepare them for the future, while still teaching content standards. [Ed] [Bd]

Every year, education research tells us more about how to optimize learning, from brain-based research to studies connecting academic achievement and other factors, such as the arts, physical activity, nutrition and more.  These findings can help educators enhance programming to be more developmentally appropriate, more engaging and more powerful, for student understanding that lasts.  Take away an updated list of practices that enhance learning, based on recent and enduring research. [Ed] [Bd]

A common strategy among schools boasting exceptionally high academic achievement is explicit development of school culture.  For some, the focus is on academic expectations: bolstering students’ academic self-concept, making high achievement socially desirable among peers, setting high standards with parents, staff and students and so on.  Some develop a supportive school environment through curricula and other activities that help create conditions conducive to learning. Staff development can also be important.  At this session, hear practical approaches for shifting school culture to promote academic learning. [Ed] [Bd]

Is your school overwhelmed with student data and not sure how to make the best use of it for continuous academic improvement?  Data can be a powerful tool to improve instruction but many schools don’t strategically collect, monitor, and analyze the most helpful information.  The session will include suggestions on gathering the kinds of formative and summative data that can be especially useful to a focus on continuous improvement.  Hear how some schools have helped all students succeed by closely tracking student performance and make use of a process to use data in a cycle of school improvement. [Ed] [Bd]

Proposition 39 potentially offers a charter school a district school facility or in-lieu forms of facility assistance. Turning this potential into reality requires a detailed understanding of this complicated, multi-step and often politically charged process.  Due November 1, the recently revised Prop 39 request includes numerous requirements. Attend this hands-on training to put your school in the best position to obtain a charter school facility. [Bs]