Complete Listing of Services

Charter Choices offers a compelling variety of services to assist you in either starting or maintaining your charter school.

Each of the following services are available individually or as part of a package that our team of specialists can customize for you. To help you hone in on the service most appropriate to your needs we have broken our list into five major categories:

New School Implementation

  • Start-Up Consulting – Charter Choices will explain the charter school application process to you and your founding team and identify additional charter school related resources that we’ll stake our reputation on and that you can trust.
  • Charter Application Authoring and Authoring Assistance – Charter Choices will write, or assist you in writing, a charter application that truly reflects your educational vision. Then we will design, or help you design, a comprehensive financial and business management plan that will provide a solid platform upon which you can keep your school operating year after year.
  • Planning Grant Development – There are both federal and state grants available to those interested in starting a charter school. Our staff will work with you and your founding team to create grant applications that will secure state or federal funding and fuel your charter school’s start-up.
  • Real Estate Consulting – Acting as consultants to your board of directors, we can help arrange and negotiate financing for facility improvements and expansion and ensure that your charter school is housed in an appropriate school facility that is within your program’s operating budget.
  • Curriculum Development & Authoring – Our curriculum specialists will carefully review your educational vision and your charter school’s mission and work with you to develop a complete curriculum that will satisfy State and Federal educational standards and those innovative ideas that have motivated you open a charter school. We can also collaborate with your school’s instructional staff and administrators during your school’s first years to review and update your school’s educational program bringing you the most up-to-date information we have received while working with our numerous partners and schools.
  • Expansion Planning & Financing – Charter Choices will develop an expansion plan and either help you manage the expansion process or manage the process for you. This includes recruiting new teachers and students as well as overseeing the facilities acquisition and development process.

Accounting Services

  • Accounts Payable – Charter Choices will manage your school’s payment processes, ensuring that all bills are paid in a timely fashion. In addition, we will help your school establish good credit and maintain solid vendor relationships.
  • Purchasing – Charter Choices can assist newly approved charter school operators in furnishing (fitting out) new schools and in the development of sound purchasing processes. We can also help you locate and purchase student and staff consumables, negotiate equipment leasing arrangements (i.e. copiers, computers and telephone systems) and train your staff to manage efficient purchasing processes. Our procedures include:
    • Vendor Identification, Price Comparison, and Price Negotiation – Charter Choices researches the vendor pool regularly, uncovering the best solutions at the best prices on major purchases or those that recur.
    • Fixed Asset Inventory Management – Charter Choices will compile and maintain a complete fixed asset register.
  • Accounts Receivable – Charter Choices will ensure all applicable revenue sources are received and properly accounted for.
  • Bank Statement Reconciliation “the books” – Reconcile out of your cash accounts each month.
  • School District Billing – Charter Choices will bill the local school districts and or authorizing entities for students enrolled (Regular and Special Education) and work on the annual reconciliation reports that calculate student allotment based on average daily membership.

Financial Planning

  • Budget Control/Forecast – Charter Choices will help you prepare your annual budget in accordance with department of educations requirement. We will provide oversight and act as an advisory role during initial and ongoing budgeting process. In addition, Charter Choices will manage your school’s budgeting process. This includes the development and updating of budgets and cash forecasts through out the year.
  • Cash Management – Charter Choices will develop a cash management strategy for the school, including negotiating and structuring working capital loans with lenders. To insure that your school’s surplus capital is maximized we can also work with your board of school directors to develop an investment plan that will add dollars to your bottom line and help you finance a few extra computers for your students or a new school wing.
  • Revenue Application and Collection – Many of the revenue streams that are available to charter schools require that an application be submitted and that  follow-up is consistent to ensure prompt receipt of needed funds. Charter Choices will write any necessary applications and make sure that your school receives all revenues and entitlements for which it is qualified.
  • Annual Reports – Good things happen when those in the community are kept “in-the-loop.” Keeping your charter school’s finances and academic accomplishments transparent to your stakeholders through the creation and distribution of an Annual Report is an efficient way of getting your important information out to your community and can help you keep your community excited, involved, and aware. Charter Choices can develop and produce annual reports for your school that facilitate the process of keeping your school open to your community. Your finished reports can be distributed to your school’s charter authorizing agency, your parents, and your alumni to inform them of your accomplishments and your accounts and to keep your community in the know.
  • Board Training and Reporting – A charter school is only as strong as its board of directors. Charter Choices will help your trustees understand their responsibilities to the school in board trainings that can be held onsite at your school. Your charter school board members will learn:
    • The Non Profit Model
    • Roles and Responsibilities – Each member of a charter school school board of directors has the opportunity to provide a unique service to the school. At the same time, board members have specific fiduciary responsibilities to the school. Your trustees will what they can do to support your school and what they must do to stay compliant with the law.
    • Legal Responsibilities of a School Board – In addition to the legal requirements that guide the action of the individual board member, the board as a whole has a responsibility to act according to the school’s established by-laws and the laws of the state.
    • Meeting Support – Charter Choices will help run effective board meetings.
    • Board Reporting – Charter Choices will prepare monthly/quarterly financial information. All of which is reported to the board. This information included a Balance Sheet, Income Statement (Budget to Actual), Cash Flows and other requested information.

Compliance & Efficiency Review

  • Preparation of Department of Education Reports – Charter Choices will monitor state requirements and file reports required by the Department of Education in a timely fashion.
  • PIMS – Charter Choices will provide comprehensive PIMS reporting services for all required templates.
  • Compliance Management / Reporting – Charter Choices will develop compliance procedures and reporting and monitoring systems to ensure that the charter school complies with various State and Federal law and regulations. Charter Choices also offers services to conduct internal compliance procedures to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations
  • Audit Preparation – Charter Choices will assist the school in preparing the required financial statements, trial balance and supporting work papers for an outside independent audit firm to conduct an annual financial audit of the charter school.
  • Grant Development Support – Charter Choices will work closely with your school board’s development committee to ensure that your school raises requisite funds. In addition, Charter Choices will author, or assist you in authoring applications for available, state, federal, corporate, and private grants.
  • Preparation of Tax Forms – Our team of accountants will prepare and file the 501 c (3) application (Form 1023 – Application for Recognition of Exemption) as well as your school’s annual tax return (Form 990 – Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax).
  • Accounting Software Assessment and Training – Just like tax laws, accounting software from the major vendors changes yearly. Charter Choices can provide on-site training in Peachtree and/or QuickBooks Accounting Software to help insure that your procedures and the people that exercise them are up to speed year in and year out.
  • School Assessment Evaluation

Personnel & Payroll Services

  • Human Resources Services – Charter schools have unique hiring requirements and unique hiring possibilities when compared to other public schools. It is of the utmost importance to the continued operation of your charter school that you have administration, faculty, and staff that are good fits for your program, that can manage the tasks you will be hiring them to do, and that have all the clearances necessary to insure the safety of your students. Our team of experienced school administrators can provide general oversight over all HR matters. If desired, we will manage all hiring paperwork, clearances, and contracts to keep you and your students secure and your employees happy.
  • Benefits Management – Charter Choices will research and recommend benefit plan alternatives and assist employees in subscribing for benefits.
  • Retirement Reporting – Charter Choices will be responsible for the retirement process. These services include:
    • ensuring that employees are properly enrolled in the state mandated retirement program
    • making timely employee and employer payments
    • submitting the required reports to PSERS
    • preparing the required reports for employee retirement and refund applications
    • payroll facilitation – Charter Choices will be responsible for reviewing and submitting payroll and and acting as a Liaison to our Payroll Companies to ensure all payroll taxes are filed.

Since the inception of KIPP Philadelphia, Mike and his team have been a valuable resource to our school. We have come to value and rely on the services they provide KIPP. They act as an extension of our current staff. They are qualified and willing to help in any way they can to serve our school's needs.
— Marc Manella, CEO/Founder
KIPP Philadelphia Schools