What+Are+Our+Needs?

What are some skills that you need? What areas of starting a school do you want to know more about?
//(As started September 24, 2009)//

More intros of ourselves. Alternative school models. Process questions: How do you start a school? Where does one begin? Documents (what do we need to produce?) Funding Teacher Salary Structure What is a Board? Who should be on it? Purchasing land? Alternative processes, support networks, what already exists to help us? What’s out there: governance structures (how are they created?). What does research say about what makes schools successful? How important is the location/community? How do you recruit quality teachers? What are the best practices for that? Partnership with local university? (Partnerships, in general.) Budgeting. NUMBERS: how much does it COST to start a school? Timeline (realistic). Recruiting students and families (marketing). Personal review board (constructive feedback…critical friends). Talking with people who have founded things – what the reality of the first 3-5 years is. Why schools fail. Case Studies of schools that have triumphed and schools that have tanked. (e.g. Excel.) Report card of charter schools? Do consulting groups exist for schools, charters, etc.? Is there a support network at Harvard for entrepreneurial ventures? BRIDGE at Harvard. Is there a Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. for educators? Evaluation? Strategy.