Pointe Schools

In May, I finally gave in and joined a gym. I had 3 introductory sessions with a trainer. At the first session, he asked me… “what are your goals?” Well, I really didn’t have any. I think my answer was something like… “Ummmm, I’m here because everyone says I should be working out.”

Although I went through the sessions, I honestly didn’t get a lot out of them. Why? Well, doing something without having a goal feels pointless. I wasn’t trying to accomplish anything, so my energy wasn’t focused. I had no way to measure my success or to know when something needed to change, because I wasn’t aiming at anything.

During Pointe’s first 10 years, our goals were creating and building. We’ve been driven by growth and crisis management. To our credit, we have been resilient and have had amazing success.

Restlessness – the push to improve, always setting a new goal…is something that has characterized Pointe Schools. As we constantly say, “How can we ‘Prep it Up?’” Honestly, that has been pretty easy up until now. We have been establishing ourselves as a company and overcoming incredible obstacles. Change? That was our middle name…we had to change to survive.

Well, now what?

I love the quote from Edward W. Smith’s Sixty Seconds to Success….”If you want more joy in your day, then find a challenge and overcome it. Boredom sets in when you aren’t challenged. You need to be stretched, to feel pride in what you are doing and who you are. Pick something a little harder than what you have been doing, work on it till you overcome it and see how you feel.”

I challenged the staff at Friday’s District meeting, “We must have the intestinal fortitude to continue to change…in the midst of success!” Although Pointe Schools can now enjoy stability, we can’t get comfortable, or we will stagnate.

Yes, we have been successful…but we can do better!

I always chuckle to myself when people ask me if I am enjoying my time off during the summer. Time off? Seriously? Summer time is my busy season!

Every summer is a flurry of activity. We re-carpet, paint, scrub desks, install new furniture and whiteboards and work on special re-modeling projects. The principals finish staffing, order curriculum and supplies, and finalize blocking and schedules. The principals and I work closely to finalize the new year’s policies and procedures. The fiscal year ends in June and we launch the new fiscal year on July 1^st, so there are reporting deadlines for the prior year and budgets to be finalized for the upcoming year. On top of all the preparations, the elementary schools run summer camps and the Prep runs tutoring programs, athletic practices, and musical rehearsals. Oh, and new families are continue to enroll. Summer is not a break for administrators!

 In the midst of all the activity, I take time to remember my first summer as Pointe’s Superintendent. I assumed the responsibilities of Superintendent on June 27^th, 2006…3 days before the end of the fiscal year. Not only was I new to the business side of the company (I had served as the Prep’s Principal and had also overseen the elementary educational programs since the charter was founded in 2001), but the district was financially struggling. I inherited over $300,000 of unpaid bills, vendors who had not been paid in months and no longer wanted to do business with us, and an unworkable proposed budget (budgeted money for unnecessary new athletic uniforms but nothing budgeted for needed curriculum or substitute teaches). I inherited financial obligations for the upcoming year that we could not meet. Oh, did I mention that we had over a million dollars work of bond building projects that hadn’t even been started, yet? That first day, I had no idea what our payroll was or how much money it took to keep any one of our schools functioning. Cash vs. accrual? No clue.     

 I remember pouring over our finances, trying to find places to cut that wouldn’t impact the classroom and reading “Accounting for Dummies.” I cut the district office staff from 9 employees to 4 employees. I set a policy that we would pay our current financial obligations on time and use any excess to pay off past due bills. However, as soon as we started paying past-due bills, we received calls and bills for previous years (some from as far back as 2003)! Although companies had written off some of our debt, when they heard we were paying our bills, they came knocking!

 Amazingly, by January we were current on all our bills! It took two more years to finish the construction projects. The projects cost more to complete than had been budgeted in the 2005 bond project, but by that time we had enough cash on hand to finish them anyway.

 When the state budget cuts hit, we were in a solid financial position. Not a single bill or paycheck was late. Despite the continued state cuts, our financial position has been solid enough that the bond investors exercised their right to require us to seek a rating from one of the major rating companies.  

 So, we went through a financial analysis and last month Pointe Educational Services dba Pointe Schools received an investment grade rating from Standard and Poor’s. Five years ago, I wouldn’t have believed we would be among the most financially stable charter schools in Arizona.

Although I am always striving for improvement, it was nice to have independent confirmation that we have done amazing things over the past five years.

I recently spent an invigorating/exhausting 4 days in Atlanta at the National Charter Schools Conference. This is the first year Pointe has participated in the annual event, sponsored by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and it was informative and inspiring.

Over 4,000 attendees from across the country were welcomed by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal at the opening session. Governor Deal was one of the many national and local leaders I had the opportunity to hear speak passionately of their support for the charter school movement and our positive impact on students’ lives. Then, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan shared how he believes charter schools are an essential part of improving America’s education system. He answered questions directly from the audience regarding funding inequities for charter students across the county. Eileen Sigmund, the President and CEO of Arizona’s Charter School Association, later addressed the same concern and how our Association is supporting the lawsuit against the state of Arizona for its failure to provide equal funding for each public school student (Arizona pays, on average, $1,500 less to educate a student in a charter school than it would if the same student attended his or her neighborhood district school).

I also had the opportunity to see former President Bill Clinton accept a Lifetime Achievement Award award from the NAPCS for his support of charter schools. President Clinton shared how he began talking about charter schools while he was campaigning for office (although his advisors warned him against it). When he became president, only one charter school was operating in the entire country. When he left office, there were 2,000 charter schools serving children across the nation. Today, the United States has over 5,000 charter schools serving over 2 million students and experts are predicting that number will actually double in the next several years.

At one of the sessions, I was able to share with other charter leaders from across the country how we put strategies in place to dramatically improved student attrition rates at North Pointe Prep over the past 5 years. Our success in this area is considered remarkable because most college-prep schools have resigned themselves to a large exudes of students between the 9th and 12th grades.

There were some wonderful innovations showcased at the conference. I was excited to learn how we can implement smart-board technology in our classrooms at a fraction of the traditional cost! I am also returning with up-to-date information regarding the new Common Core Standards, student level data analysis, and successful board governance.

Corey Booker, the charismatic mayor or Newark, challenged the charter leaders present, saying “We have underestimated the profound genius, the infinite capacity, the unbelievable ability of our children. One of the worst sentiments in our nation is this toxic resignation to a school system that fails children…People like being comfortable but we are here to disturb the comfortable!”

I returned to Phoenix with a renewed passion for what we do. I look forward to sharing what I learned with our principals and teachers so we can continue to push for excellence in all we do. I don’t ever want us to become resigned to just being comfortable!