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Erik: Why is running a charter school like running a small business?
Andrew: It is a small business. We have customers, our families and our students and we have
employees, our staff and we have to keep all of our constituents happy we have a P and
L, Profit and Loss statement to look at the end of each year, how did our revenue lines
measure up? How did our expense lines measure up? Did we run a surplus? Are we running in
a deficit? Like any small business we want to be sustainable year after year after year,
so it’s important that our finances work and are sustainable, so it is a small business.
Erik: What have other small businesses taught you about running a more effective charter
school?
Andrew: I think it’s important that you’re paying attention to, especially as a finance
professional, to you’re key expense line, paying attention to you’re key revenue drivers.
In New York City we get paid a per pupil allocation for each child we serve, so it’s important
that if we want to have a hundred students in the sixth grade that we make a hundred
students happy, so we have a hundred students happy in June at the end of year in the sixth
grade, otherwise we’re going to have trouble meeting our revenue numbers. So, that’s
like a small business that sells widgets, if their widgets are not good then they’re
going to have trouble meeting their numbers at then end of the year. Same concept. I don’t
want to compare a child to a widget, but we need to make a hundred children happy.