About Us
School Improvement Partnership supports transparency and accountability in the charter school bond market, making it simpler for charter school bond investors to track the progress of their investments.
Our Value
- Rational and prudent bond investors will insist upon strong periodic reporting of performance metrics to monitor deployed capital
- Unlike other municipal bonds, the value of charter school bonds can be affected by changes in school leadership, per pupil payment rates or academic performance
- Continuing disclosure from School Improvement Partnership helps to head off payment defaults and preserve the value of bond investments
- Our evaluation reports provide action plans that enhance financial and academic performance, positively affecting market value
Our Team
Leadership
Alan F. Wohlstetter, Esq.CEO
Alan serves as President of School Improvement Partnership, a consulting firm bringing national best practices to charter schools and traditional public schools. Alan is also a partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Zarwin Baum DeVito Kaplan Schaer Toddy P.C., where he heads the Public Finance and Education practice groups. Alan’s work with charter schools started in 2001 when then-Mayor Street of Philadelphia hired him to make recommendations on charter school funding to mitigate their effect on The School District of Philadelphia. In 2003, Alan then helped finance the first Philadelphia charter school expansion through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds. Since then, he has been involved in over thirty charter school financings in five states. Alan has trained over a dozen charter school boards on their legal and financial responsibilities and has assisted and has helped countless charter schools navigate charter renewal and leadership change.
Liz SweeneyDirector of Strategic Partnership and Business Intelligence
Liz Sweeney is a governance leader, municipal advisor, and public finance consultant with extensive expertise in credit and risk management, data analytics, finance, capital access, and strategy. She is the founder of Nutshell Associates, a public finance consulting and municipal advisory firm certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and registered with the SEC and MSRB. Previously, Liz was a managing director in credit policy and risk management at S&P Global Ratings, the world’s largest credit rating agency, where her work included the development of new rating methodology for charter schools.
Liz is a board member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB- the primary regulator for the $4 trillion municipal securities market), and a Senior Fellow of the Milken Institute.
She holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, and a BS from Georgetown University.
Sandeep GupteChief Technology Officer
Mr. Gupte has over 27 years of Capital Markets and Alternative Investments technology and operations expertise. Throughout his career Sandeep has served as a financial institution leader. He has a strong background across the many financial investment domains and has advised senior management on and successfully implemented various technology initiatives and strategies. Throughout his experience, he has assisted large asset management firms with the roll out of their Investor Portals, formulated and implemented a complete strategy for data governance, architected data centralization utilizing master data management, and established a centralized reporting platform.
Sandeep has served as a number of senior roles in Technology including Chief Technology Officer at Angelo, Gordon & Co.. In this position, he guided Angelo Gordon through a number of key strategic technology initiatives such as the conversion of their legacy fund accounting system and development of systems for front to back transaction processing and investor-relations management.
Sandeep also has extensive knowledge and expertise in portfolio and fund accounting systems and has implemented complex solutions across many alternative asset management firms –including coverage of Credit Derivatives, Long / Short Equities, Private Equity, Real Estate, Hedge Funds as well as Advisory clients. His expertise areas include:
- Expertise with debt instruments, hedge fund processes, advisors and fund administrators
- Extensive experience with illiquid assets for Private Equity, Real Estate, and Fund of funds
- Active roles for enterprise systems selection, implementation and customization of complex portfolio accounting systems and integration of centralized reporting systems
Sandeep holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from SUNY at Stony Brook and has the NASD Series 6, 63 and 7. As a volunteer, he is the president of the Bethpage Soccer Club managing 600+ active players. He is also an active instrument-rated pilot and volunteer pilot for the North East chapter of the Angel Pilot NE Network.
John SorceDirector of Data Management and Stewardship
John Sorce is the Director of Data Management and Stewardship for School Improvement Partnership. As Director, John is responsible for the SIP database of financial, operational and academic metrics for charter school data.
John was previously a Director for S&P Global Ratings where he held several different positions in the data organization. Through the years, John worked closely with analytical, compliance, operational and legal groups within S&P Global. He managed teams responsible for the ratings data for dissemination into ratings systems as well as S&P Market Intelligence products.
John also created and trained offshore teams to support the maintenance of reference and ratings data as well as the ability to do large data projects. He played key roles in the cleanup of data dissemination rules, creation of new workflows as well as system and process changes required to meet the Dodd Frank disclosure regulations.
Jeremiah RobinsonEngineering Solutions Architect
President of Information Assets LLC, Robinson is a solo data analytics and solution architecture consultant with experience in many stacks and platforms. For the past 15 years Robinson has architected and developed data warehouses, data analytics and data collection solutions, and managed projects. His reputation for collecting accurate and complete business requirements, overcoming complex problems using sophisticated technical solutions, and working well with teams in order to bring projects to a successful conclusion has followed him throughout a career spanning a wide variety of industries and consulting roles.
Robinson is husband of Sara and father to Cora. He’s active in his church, reads incessantly, loves deep conversation, and spends as much time as possible outdoors, especially sailing on Lake Michigan.
Devante RobinsonDirector of Reporting Services
Devante Robinson is the Reporting Services Intern for School Improvement Partnership. Since joining, SIP, Devante has worked behind the scenes gathering pertinent data and joining micro teams to produce quality content with it. Devante works with department heads of the charter schools to ensure that all of their needs are met, that their required reporting is submitted on time, and that their continuing disclosure forms meet all the requirements in financial and bond documents.
In his recent experience, Devante has interned with a real estate service provider where he and his team created a pro-bit model that forecasts lease rates for Class A office spaces in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver. Prior, Devante worked in Law Enforcement with focus in community policing and cyber related crimes which included working with various Federal Agencies (FBI, DEA, ATF, DOACS, FWC).
Devante obtained his Bachelors in Business Management from Saint Leo University and received his Master of Science in Finance from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Ning JiangDirector of Application Development
Ning Jiang received Ph.D. degree of computer science from University of Central Florida. During his graduate study he published 15 papers and journals in the area of wireless communication, machine learning and multimedia and received IEEE Orlando Section Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year Award.
After graduation he joined Microsoft Office Labs, where he collaborated with Microsoft Research and various Office teams to develop innovative prototypes such as enterprise social networks for Microsoft SharePoint, Outlook Collaboration Space, and Outlook forgotten recipient suggestion plugin. He was joint owner of 4 patents from these collaborations. Ning later joined the Office team and developed the Office Meeting Solution. The software integrates Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and SharePoint. He obtained extensive research and large-scale software development experiences during his 6 years at Microsoft.
After that he joined AIM Consulting as a Senior Consultant and worked on various key components at companies such as Starbucks and Liberty Mutual Insurance. At Starbucks he implemented the user sign up/sign in and authentication pages and worked closely with both the iOS and Android app teams. At Liberty Mutual Ning’s team implemented Angular JS based customer portal. All these projects received high recognition from those companies.
Ning currently works as an independent consultant, involved in several large and medium scale software development and research projects. He is mainly in charge of architecting cloud-based solutions with both frontend and backend APIs implementations.
Tressa PankovitsDirector of Communications
Tressa Pankovits serves as Director of Communications for School Improvement Partnership and authors the organization’s
critically acclaimed newsletter “Charter School Investor,” which is published approximately every two weeks. (You can subscribe here). A non-practicing attorney, Tressa is also an award-winning former broadcast journalist with CBS and CLTV in Chicago, Illinois, WRIC in Richmond, Virginia and WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island. She served as Director of Communications for the Lieutenant Governor of Illinois and Chief of Staff for a nationwide education nonprofit. Tressa has consulted on education projects in Haiti, Chile and New Orleans, and is a respected, self-motivated senior leadership team professional with more than 15 years’ experience setting direction and executing organizational vision, goals and business strategies.
Alex ShinkarovskyDirector of Client Services
Alex Shinkarovsky has supported SIP since May of 2022 in Marketing, Sales, Client Services and Content. Managing all institutional investor relationships for the SIP Database, Alex also participates in expanding SIP’s Reporting and Continuing Disclosure service for schools and investors. With Tressa Pankovits, Alex is leading SIP’s Thought Leadership efforts, and is especially focused on the Charter School Investor Podcast. Alex is responsible for securing guests, sponsor outreach, editing and publishing to major platforms. Alex has 8+ years experience in business development of analytical and alternative data sets to the investor community. Alex earned his B.S. in Finance from Binghamton University in 2013.
Paula CostaFinancial Data Analyst
Paula Costa is a Financial Data Analyst with School Improvement Partnership. In her current role, Paula’s responsibilities include analyzing charter school financial, operating, and academic metrics to facilitate the creation and maintenance of SIP’s world-class database of US charter schools.
Paula has spent her entire career within the municipal bond industry, progressing from a research role initially at J.J. Kenny to an analytical role as an Associate Director at S&P Global Ratings within its US public finance group. During her 15-year tenure at S&P, Paula evaluated and provided commentary about public finance borrowers across various sectors specializing, with a specialty in the water & sewer utilities sector.
She holds an MBA from St. John’s University and a BS in economics with a minor in finance from State University of NY College at Oneonta.
John EnquistLead Automation Engineer
John joined SIP as Lead Automation Engineer to work with the engineering and reporting teams to streamline the Continuing Disclosure Reporting process.
John gained hands-on experience in his first role as as a Systems Programmer at Precision Valve & Automation. He was responsible for programming automation robots and troubleshooting both hardware and software on the floor.
John later joined James McGuinness & Associates as a Software Engineering Consultant where he worked in a group-oriented programming environment to develop features to accommodate his client’s specific needs.
He currently works at Care Design New York as a Software Developer. Here, John works on automating data flows between a large suite of both in-house and third-party applications and maintaining systems that the company uses daily.
He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Union College, where he worked as an Undergraduate research assistant to study social robotics. John is a creative problem solver who enjoys learning new programming skills and pushing himself to the next challenge.
Stacey HaskellSchool Operations Consultant
Stacey Haskell and her husband moved to Charlotte in 2006. After careful consideration of the existing public and private schools in the Charlotte area, she founded Corvian Community School in 2010. Under Stacey’s leadership, the school (i) grew from a low-income private school with 15 students to a K-12 charter school with 1300 students, (ii) achieved accreditation by Cognia, and (iii) obtained three tax-exempt bonds totaling $65 million to build the brand a new state-of-the-art elementary school, a high school, and an athletic complex. Her vision and hard work were recognized by the community when Corvian won an Exceeded NC Academic Growth Award (2017-2018), a Wipe Out Waste Award (2017) and a Heavy Hitter Award (2018). Corvian’s charter was renewed for 10 years in 2021, proving the financial and academic excellence of the school.
Stacey’s unwavering dedication and impressive financial know-how (originating with her BS in Accounting from George Mason University) have undoubtedly paved the way for Corvian’s financial success with 12 consecutive years of net surplus and $16M in annual revenue. Stacey’s commitment to active listening and balanced decision-making have proven to be instrumental in achieving success – and will continue to aid her in her next adventure.
Maria MillsManager of Reporting Services
Maria joined SIP in February of 2023. She has over 17 years experience in public education, administration, and curriculum development. Maria is based in the Raleigh area of NC, primarily focusing on supporting new charter schools in both their administrative development as well as their budget needs. Maria is the director of Carolina Charter Academy , opened in fall of 2019, and recently is the first Wells Fargo NC Charter Principal of the Year, 2022.
She led efforts to secure a 19.2MM bond deal in 2021 for the construction and expansion of CCA’s over 36,000 sq foot facility in Angier NC, which now houses a state of the art STEM lab, beautiful library and MS regulation size basketball/volleyball gymnasium. She has prioritized access for all students growing the English Learner population; as well as the free and reduced lunch, all under the umbrella of supporting and prioritizing equal opportunities for all students while removing as many barriers as possible.
Maria serves as an advisor to the Charter School Advisory Board. She is a graduate of the University of Florida, dual bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Classical Studies. She also holds her Masters Degree in Math Education and School Leadership. Her father was a first generation immigrant from Greece and she is fluent in Greek language, and even taught it at the collegiate level! .
Matt PriceReporting Coordinator
Matt Price is a 20-year veteran of public education serving as a science teacher, assistant principal, and currently a principal of a comprehensive 9-12 public high school. He employs a student-centered approach to managing schools, with focus on compliance while maintaining a vision of improvement student outcomes based on continued data-based implementation of programs and procedures. In his free time Matt enjoys being the father of three teenagers, working in his gardens, and reading. He joined School Improvement Partnership in early 2024 in the Reporting department.
Board of Directors
Steve Halpern
Steve Halpern is President of Woodland Management (www.wmfio.com), a Pittsburgh, PA-based family investment office. Prior to joining Woodland Management in 2005, Steve was involved in the acquisition, board oversight and eventual sale of several private companies. He also spent 17 years as a franchise owner and operating executive at TeleCheck, a leading payments company. Steve received his BS and MBA degrees from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a CPA by background.
Steve is active in community service, having served as board chair of the Jewish Association on Aging, a senior living continuum, and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, and as a long-time board member of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Shady Side Academy. He and his wife Linda, a social worker by background, have two adult children Jonathan (27) and Allison (23).
Melanie S. Grant, J.D.
Melanie previously served as Chief Operating Officer of School Improvement Partnership, overseeing process and product development. As a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Melanie participated on a panel about Non-Profit Board Best Practices and facilitated a group discussion about Diversity in the Boardroom: The Power of Perspective with women leaders from NJ Government, Campbell’s Soup, Silicon Valley and an organization dedicated to preparing women for the boardroom. Melanie held instrumental leadership roles for various private equity owned portfolio companies. As an operating executive, she led a global team to form Archroma, a $1.1 B chemical manufacturer operating in 47 countries and led the business transformation of Burlington Coat Factory, moving the organization from a $1.3 B family-owned business to a $4.3 B scalable retail organization. Additionally, she has served as Assistant General Counsel for ARAMARK and as a corporate attorney for Morgan Lewis. Melanie started her career with significant capital markets experience at Goldman Sachs in New York. She holds a JD from the University of Virginia and a BA from Rutgers College.
Arthur Mitchell
Arthur Mitchell is Executive Director for the STEM Equity Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to three goals: creating systems where STEM subjects are taught using culturally responsive pedagogical approaches; increasing the diversity of STEM educators; and creating a more durable STEM pipeline for groups which are underrepresented in STEM career fields. He also collaborates with educational institutions through his consulting group, Catalysis Education Solutions. Catalysis partners to develop systems and leaders that are culturally proficient and equity-focused. In addition to his work with the schools and districts, he is a member of the Pennsylvania State STEM Advisory Committee and serves on the advisory board for Washington State LASER.
He has served in K-12 education for over 25 years, working in the most impoverished urban and the most affluent suburban districts in the Mid-Atlantic region as a teacher and administrator. Outside of direct district experiences, he has also held positions at the county and state level dealing with curriculum, instruction, professional development, innovation, industry and higher education partnerships, and charter school support. Arthur gained his most valuable experiences in learning how to plan and deliver effective professional development as a fellow in the WestEd National Academy for Math and Science Leadership. He also became skilled in influencing policy through being a fellow in the Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program and as a member of the Council of State Science Supervisors.
Dean Lewallen
After commencing his career as a mental health worker and professional fundraiser, and a second career, post-graduate school, in tax-exempt/public finance as a key member of the portfolio management teams at leading investment, financial guaranty and financial advisory companies, Dean Lewallen now focuses on serving non-profit boards in a well as representing creditors overseeing restructured non-profit organizations and companies.
Currently, as a creditor appointed representative, he is President/CEO of German Pellets Texas, a bankrupt shell company in Texas currently in ‘wind-down’ mode. He was also appointed to the board of Goodwill of Southern Nevada as an official observer, subsequent to its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a volunteer capacity, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Leopold Schepp Foundation in New York and was recently elected to the Board of Woodland Pond at New Paltz, a non-profit senior living community in the Hudson Valley. Up until his recent retirement, Mr. Lewallen was Senior Vice President and High-Yield Municipal Credit Analyst with AllianceBernstein, where he utilized his sophisticated analytical skills developed through the negotiation and structuring of new (as well as the restructuring of distressed) high-yield tax-exempt securities/private placements in a wide variety of credit sectors. Prior to AB, he did much the same at Dreyfus/BNY Mellon, Prudential Financial, and MBIA.
Mr. Lewallen was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. He earned his B.A. “With Distinction” in 1975 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a major in Psychology and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi national honorary societies. After moving to New York State, he received his M.B.A. in Finance from Cornell University in 1981. Over the years, he gave numerous presentations at industry conferences and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 from Smith’s Research & Ratings Review, an industry publication.
Advisors
Barclay Wohlstetter
Barclay is School Improvement Partnerships’ Social Bond Data Intern. In this role, Barclay helps to develop a best-in-class methodology to determine whether loans or bonds for select American charter schools qualify as Social Impact Bonds (SIB). Since joining SIP, she has taken the first steps by identifying and assessing literature and reports in respect to possible frameworks. She and the other members of the School Improvement Partnership social impact team have collaborated on strategies and chose the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the working framework for the SIB index. Barclay’s key responsibility moving forward in the project is identifying how three chosen SDGs (4, 8, 10) will be applied to the public education K-12 sector. Through careful analysis and in-depth literature review, Barclay will identify key data metrics and support for their implementation.
Barclay began her professional career in research, as without data there is no change. Previous experience includes independent undergraduate research, co-conducting a now published meta-analysis, and most recently, a master’s thesis at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Barclay graduated magna cum laude from Bucknell University (2019) with a degree in Psychology, and a minor in Philosophy. Additionally, she has now completed her MSc in Comparative Criminal Justice at Leiden University.
Michelle Thornton
Michelle Thornton, Founder and Managing Member of Thornton Group Financial Services, LLC, has over 20 years of experience in tax, accounting, and business management services. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and a Master of Science in Accounting from Drexel University. She also holds a certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education for Educational leadership.
Since 1998, the mission of the Thornton Group has been to educate, develop, and support organizations and individuals by meeting their financial objectives. The Thornton Group has serviced clients in various industries, including education, sports, and other profit and non-profit entities. Michelle is most known for her work in the area of fiscal turn-around for educational organizations.
Paul Augello, Jr., CPA
Paul Augello is the CEO and Co-Founder of boostED Finance. Prior to founding boostED Finance, Augello served as the Chief Financial Officer of Victory Education Partners, where he oversaw the day-to- day management of Victory’s finances, and worked with charter school partners on budgeting, financial reporting, financial projections and budget analysis. Prior to joining Victory, Augello worked for the Interpublic Group of Companies where he spent five years as the Internal Audit Manager, and then as the North American Controller of Initiative Media. Before that, Augello was the General Audit Supervisor for the New York Times Company, where he was an active project team member for all phases of the Company’s three printing plant construction projects and received a Chairman’s Recognition Award for his work on acquisitions and special projects. Earlier in his career, Augello was a Senior Accountant with the publishing company Random House and the Big Four Accounting firm Deloitte, where he earned his C.P.A. Augello graduated with a B.S. in Accounting from Villanova University in 1988.
Robert Lysek
Robert has over twenty years of founder and executive experience in public education services, specifically though founding, leading operations in start-up education ventures and through integration of school operations across multiple sites and states. Robert is the current board President of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools and is considered a thought leader in personnel development, school culture and climate. Robert also currently supports schools in Camden and Newark NJ, Wilmington, DE.
Robert started his career as a police officer for five years where he was a field-training officer, crimes against children investigator and gang officer. In 2013, he co-founded Executive Education Academy Charter School (EEACS) after founding Success Schools and serving as Chief Operations Officer from April 2010 to August 2013 (acquired by Specialized Education Services Inc “SESI” in 2012). Post-acquisition, Robert served as Chief Operations Officer for the Alternative Education Division of SESIS, responsible for company culture and oversight, business development, management and accountability for school operations across the country. As co-founder of Camelot Education from February 2004 to 2010, he had broad responsibilities including supervision of 3000 students, 250 employees, and twelve schools. He managed human resources, budget, facility management, academics, support services and supervising the twelve campus directors for the division.
Lisa Weinberger
Lisa Weinberger is the founder and creative director of Masters Group Design, a Philadelphia-based design studio that develops creative assets for change-makers. Lisa’s 30 plus years of experience in the field enables her to thoughtfully solve problems using creative strategy paired with small teams of talent. In her capacity as creative director, she has developed hundreds of visual identities for socially-minded organizations both locally and nationally. She frequently lectures and conducts workshops on the power of branding. Lisa is also the co-creator of the 2017 national non-partisan campaign, American Values, Religious Voices: 100 Days, 100 Letters, and co-author of the book (University of Cincinnati Press) of the same name.
Mario Zacharjasz, AIA
Mario graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1985. Since founding PZS Architects in 1992, he has guided the firm’s growth, engaging in many exciting secondary education projects in Philadelphia, including Esperanza Middle School, Esperanza Charter High School, Pan America Academy Charter School, Luis Munoz Marin Elementary School, Frances E. Willard School, and Benjamin Franklin High School. Mario has also worked on several higher education projects including Villiger Hall, a new student residence at St. Joseph’s University; Morgan Hall, a new student residence and dining complex at Temple University; and an expansion at Esperanza Junior College, which included a renovation for classroom space, new laboratories, and a student services center and student lounge.
Mario is committed to serving the community, supporting many non-profit organizations and actively serving on several boards and committees throughout the city, including the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia, and the Salvation Army of Kroc Corps Community Center in Philadelphia. In each of these capacities, Mario focuses his energy on community sustainability, encouraging his partners, staff, and colleagues to do the same.
Deborah Stern
Deborah Stern has been working in urban classrooms since 1988, first as an NCTE award-winning middle and high school English teacher in Chicago, and more recently as a teacher, coach, teacher educator, and school administrator in Philadelphia. She earned a B.A. at Swarthmore College, an M.A.T. at the University of Chicago and PhD. at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Stern has dedicated her professional life to teaching and learning in underserved communities. Her work and her writing have been featured in professional journals and numerous books about teaching for social justice, including An Invitation to Inquiry: Possibilities for Immersive Literacy Processes (2020), Teaching for Social Justice in the High School Classroom (2000), Teaching for Change (1998) and Teaching English So It Matters (1995).
Dr. Stern was a co-founder at Mastery Charter Schools and served there as the first Director of Education. After leaving Mastery in 2008, she began working in a variety of settings and roles to improve teaching and student learning in Philadelphia-area schools. She has supported early literacy learning with the Children’s Literacy Initiative in Philadelphia District and parochial schools, provides instructional coaching for new and experienced classroom teachers in all grades, and collaborates with schools and nonprofits to design responsive and effective academic programs. She also writes curriculum, facilitates professional learning for teachers and school leaders, and designs and manages assessment systems that deepen student learning and achievement.
Paul G. Vallas
As CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Paul eliminated a $1.2 billion projected five-year structural deficit and left the district with almost $1 billion in cash balances and twelve bond rating upgrades. His tenure in Philadelphia saw dramatic improvements in the public schools, the balancing five of six budgets, and the development and implementation of the largest school construction and repair program in the district’s history. As head of the Louisiana Recovery School District, he played a principal role in rebuilding the public school system in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and negotiating the $1.8 billion FEMA settlement that helped place students in either new or completely renovated schools. In New Orleans Paul helped created the nation’s first 100% choice district.
Consultants
Dr. Alan Seay
Alan Seay is a thirty-four year veteran of Texas public education. He spent the first twenty-five as a teacher, coach,
principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent in traditional school districts before being hired in 2011 as CEO of
A+ Charter Schools, Inc. and Superintendent of its two inner city charter schools, A+ Academy and Inspired Vision Academy.
His leadership helped the organization recover from years of TEA control and transformed them into one of the most
respected charter school organizations in North Texas. He retired from full time public education service in 2016.
In 2018, he came out of retirement to serve as CEO of International Leadership of Texas, the fastest growing charter school management organization in the nation. He restructured that organization and led them to successfully executing the largest charter school bond sale in history. After leaving ILTexas, Dr. Seay has served as Interim Superintendent for George I Sanchez Charter School and Legacy Traditional Schools of Texas. Recently, he joined the Board of Thrive Center for Success, a startup
charter school dedicated to providing services to children with autism.
Dr. Seay operates his own consulting business, Leadership4School, LLC, and works with charter schools all over the state. He provides charter school board training for the Texas Public Charter School Association, has served as interim superintendent, advises charter school leaders and school boards, provides training for officers, publishes Texas Charter School Weekly, and hosts a weekly Zoom meeting for charter school leaders. In addition, he is an adjunct professor for Louisiana State University – Shreveport and Dallas Baptist University.
Austin Rhodes
Rhodes Branding’s mission is to revolutionize K12 education by implementing culturally relevant marketing and branding strategies, ultimately enhancing the visibility and reputation of educational institutions. The Rhodes Branding team assists schools and educational entities through strategic marketing consultation, brand development, and recruitment marketing campaigns, always with an eye towards meaningful impact and growth.
In addition, Austin is an influential voice in the K12 branding and marketing sector, serving on the board of various education-focused associations where he shares his expertise to propel strategic growth.
With a robust background combining venture capital acumen with an entrepreneurial mindset, Austin brings a unique perspective to the education sector. He has worked with educational institutions all across the country, providing targeted branding and marketing solutions tailored to their unique needs and challenges.
Stephen Flavell M.Ed
Steve has been working with school systems his entire professional career. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership. Steve has provided services for private schools, public schools and charter schools
Steve began his career working as a Mental Health Technician. This experience was impactful, as he developed a thorough understanding of behavior, and the importance of a therapeutic and safe environment. He then worked in private education. While in private education Steve’s experiences cover education, therapeutic education, alternative education, special education and residential . As the Chief School Administrator for a large private education company, Steve supervised all of the company’s operations, which included 150 staff and over 1500 students. Steve was responsible for quality management, training, facility management, budgets and other operational duties. He also designed, created, and presented materials to the Pittsburgh Public Schools and Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska. Steve designed a training curriculum for Pittsburgh that was delivered to Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent, Superintendent’s cabinet, and district administration. Furthermore, he has observed and provided Lincoln Public Schools with a school wide behavior plan to implement for their emotional support and emotionally disturbed populations. Success Schools maintained sites in Richmond VA, Philadelphia PA, Harrisburg PA, York PA, Pittsburgh PA and Lincoln NE.
Furthermore, Steve has also worked as independent consultant for charter schools, located in Philadelphia, PA. Steve implemented a school wide behavior plan. This resulted in a 79% reduction in suspensions and increased overall average daily attendance. Steve has facilitated trainings for numerous public and private entities, and was a presenter at the 2012 National Alternative Education Conference.
In 2013 Steve co-founded Executive Education Academy Charter School (EEACS). EEACS is a K-12 public charter school that serves students from the Lehigh Valley. The school is focused on career and work force ready initiatives. The school serves over 1400 students from over 12 school districts.
ShaVon Savage
ShaVon Savage is the Founder & Managing Member of Mosaic School Supports, a Partner of SIP.
Mosaic’s mission is to develop school leaders’ proficiency and confidence as operational managers to clear the way for a fierce focus on student learning. The Mosaic team supports schools and other education entities through executive coaching and consulting on school management and improvement projects. In addition, ShaVon is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at Temple University.
With over 20 years of experience in the education sector, ShaVon has served as a teacher, school improvement coordinator, principal, deputy chief, deputy superintendent, and school law attorney during her career. She has worked in urban, suburban, charter and university partnership schools, and has extensive experience reviving and reinvigorating schools struggling through challenges. ShaVon has facilitated effective and relevant professional learning in multiple areas, including standards-based instruction, DEI, family and community engagement, school culture and climate, and various topics in special education.
