Critical Conversations

What makes a conversation critical? As a school leader, you are faced with many critical conversations, and likely at least one every day. Approaching a critical conversation is a delicate matter that takes planning and thought. Have you ever considered, what are the common factors that all of these sensitive, yet necessary discussions share? First, … Read More

Best Practices for Employee Onboarding

Today’s Tip offers timely, useful guidance in the hiring process. Are you busy trying to fill positions for the 2020-2021 school year? What do you need to know? What does your new hire process look like? Not sure what you need or where to start? CSS is here to help! We can unload your plate … Read More

Onboarding to Bring Out the Best in My New Hires

Hiring the right team member is vital to the success of your organization and your students, and how you welcome and onboard your new hire is a critical component to ensuring their success and retention. Having a solid plan in place for HOW to onboard your new hire is as important as hiring them in … Read More

Financial Compliance and Accountability

Because Texans trust charter officials to spend money wisely and efficiently, the state’s financial accountability systems for public charters provides a report that annually examines school funding and compliance issues to confirm that spending has been appropriate.  This report is referred to as Charter FIRST. Districts and charters must also have an outside auditor examine their financial records each … Read More

Audit Firm Selection and Qualifications

In today’s Tip, we are discussing Audit Firm Selection and Qualifications. Auditing is a process of reviewing a Charter’s financial records to decide if they are accurate and align with regulations, state laws and accounting standard. Audits are conducted by third-party external auditors that are CPA (Certified Public Accountants) or by an auditing firm. External … Read More

Certification Requirements for Charter School Teachers

In many ways, ISDs and Charter schools share common requirements and compliance items. However, in just as many ways, requirements between the two entity types differ. The realm of teacher certifications brings one of these differences to the forefront. Are teachers at open-enrollment charter schools required to hold a certification? The short answer is, it … Read More

Service Records

Do you feel overwhelmed with all the “must-knows” and “must-dos” of service records? Don’t be! We’ll review frequently asked questions and provide helpful tools that will guide you to success. What is a service record? A service record is the official document used to record years of service claimed for salary increment purposes. Service records … Read More