Essential Charter School Services

JPS Solutions’ Essential Charter School Services has brought together an elite team of experts, educators, and advisors to help charter school leaders create, operate, and expand successful charter schools. 

We Grow Successful Charter Schools

Our approach to helping your school is to develop and execute a customized plan that identifies and addresses your specific needs. We understand the “life cycle” of every charter school, and we can help you succeed during each phase of the life of your school, including: 

• Phase One—Developing Your Charter School Application — We’ll help you design an effective school model and win the approval of your authorizer. 
• Phase Two—Successfully Launching Your Charter School — We’ll help you make the best of your pre-opening Planning Period, maximize your Charter School Program Grant funds and open a great charter school. 
• Phase Three—” Lift Off “— We’ll help you get off to a great start and create the “building blocks” for a great school program. 
• Phase Four—Mid-Term Alignment — We’ll help you take the pulse of your school’s programs periodically. We’ll also help you make mid-course adjustments to ensure compliance and long-term success. 
• Phase Five—Preparation for Renewal — We’ll help you position your school for success in the charter school renewal process. Experience has shown that when charter schools focus on continuous improvement from authorization through the end of their charter terms, they are most likely to prevail. We’ll help you develop a “continuous improvement culture” as your foundation for charter renewal. 
• Phase Six—Renewal and Beyond — The later years of a charter term are the “make or break” time for renewal. We’ll help you create and implement a Charter Renewal Plan that leads to successful renewal. 

Contact Us for a Free 30-minute consultation. 

Let’s see how Essential Charter School Services can help you. 

Who We Are

JPS Solutions and the Essential Charter School Services team have more than 18 years of experience guiding development teams in creating new charter schools and helping established charter schools accomplish their objectives, meet their challenges, and achieve charter renewals. Many of our long-term clients have received New York State Education Department’s designation as “Recognition Schools” and other honors. 

If you’re thinking about creating a new charter school, Let’s Talk. 

• We helped to design successful charter schools and wrote applications to create more than a dozen charter schools. 
  • We developed charter school applications that were approved by each of New York State’s charter school authorizers 
  • We developed the charter school applications for successful specialized charter schools including —
    • The New York Center for Autism Charter School which serves exclusively students with autism and other severe developmental disabilities. This school was so successful that it has been authorized to replicate and establish a second charter school. JPS Solutions partner Frank San Felice was a Founding Board Member of this groundbreaking charter school. 
    • The Challenge Preparatory Charter School (Challenge Prep) which is establishing an innovative College and Career Technology (CCTE) program that will integrate CCTE programming at all grades — from Kindergarten to 12th grade to college and to career. JPS Solutions has worked with Challenge Prep for more than a decade. 
    • The East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School which advances the programs of the nationally-heralded East Harlem Tutorial Program. This school was so successful that it has been authorized to replicate and establish additional charter schools. 
    • The Hebrew Language Academy Charter School which has been so successful that it has been authorized to replicate and establish additional charter schools. 

If you’re thinking about your charter renewal, Let’s Talk. 

• We helped more than a dozen charter schools navigate the tough process of charter renewal including, in several instances, expansions and/or replication. With our support, several of our clients have achieved multiple successful renewals. Among the schools that we helped to get charter renewals are: 
  • The Renaissance Charter School (TRCS), which is one of New York City’s oldest charter schools. Our team has worked with TRCS for more than a decade. 
  • The John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School (Wildcat), a “last chance” transfer high school for over-aged under-credited students. Our team helped Wildcat get two full-term charter renewals. 
  • The Carl Icahn Charter Schools, which are among the highest-performing charter schools in New York State. Our team has worked with the Carl Icahn Charter Schools for nearly a decade. 
  • The Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation, which provides an inventive academic program to a highly at-risk student population. Our team helped Innovation get two charter renewals. 

If you’re thinking about grant development for your charter school, Let’s Talk.

• We’ve helped charter schools and charter school support organizations secure millions of dollars in Competitive and Entitlement grants. We wrote or co-wrote grant proposals that raised more than $50 million, and we supported schools in implementing effective grant-funded programs. Our grant development work has included the following:
  • We helped to design and implement the Partnership for Innovation in Compensation for Charter Schools (PICCS) and co-wrote grant proposals that secured roughly $40 million in federal Teacher Incentive Fund grants. JPS Solutions partner Frank San Felice was Co-Project Director for all of the PICCS programs.
  • We helped to design the Building Better Charter Schools project and wrote a grant proposal that secured a $3 million federal Charter Schools Program National Leadership Program grant.
  • We’ve helped more than 50 charter schools and traditional public school districts maximize their Title I and other entitlement grant funding by writing their Consolidated Applications, guiding them from being Targeted Assistance to School-wide programs and developing required policies and plans.
  • We wrote successful 21st Century Community Learning Center grants for a New York City charter school and for after-school and summer programs that serve charter school students in Buffalo.

Our Team

Essential Charter School Services is led by JPS Solutions, an educational consulting organization that has worked with charter schools for more than 18 years. Our team includes charter school experts with experience in school leadership, governance, instruction, assessments, professional development, staff evaluation, finance, grant development, and school turnarounds.

Our team includes: