For Charter School Authorizers

Kim Perron has worked in support of high-quality authorizing for the majority of her career. As the former Associate Vice President of the State University of New York (SUNY) Charter Schools Institute, Kim led the refinement and implementation of all charter renewal-related policies and procedures, including the conduct of school renewal visits and organization of renewal inspection teams, as well as the development of all renewal reports and recommendations. On behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Education Charter School Office, she created and authored “The Opening Procedures Handbook: A Guide for Boards of Trustees and Leaders of New Charter Schools” to support new charter school leaders and founders from the granting of the charter into the school’s first year of operation. She is also the author of several policy briefs commissioned by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), as well as the editor of the organization’s original guide to charter school closure. Kim has participated as a reviewer in several charter application cycles conducted on behalf of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the New Jersey Department of Education, the South Carolina Public Charter School District, and Chicago Public Schools. As the President and Owner of SchoolWorks, Kim now oversees the organization’s comprehensive national authorizer support services, and continues to provide consultative support to authorizers.

David Hartman is the former Managing Director of Accountability and Authorizing Supports for SchoolWorks. In his previous position as Supervisor of the Charter School Center at the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), David designed, implemented, and managed the nation’s first charter school authorizer certification process. He also led the nation’s first high-stakes charter school authorizer performance evaluation for the MDE, working with NACSA to create the Statewide authorizer evaluation criteria. During his time at SchoolWorks, David led the company’s ongoing partnership with the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to conduct more than 100 evaluations of the State’s sponsors (e.g., authorizers). He also managed new school application reviews on behalf of the Louisiana Department of Education, the Alabama State Department of Education and the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board. He has worked with individual authorizers in Indiana, Maryland, California, Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and more to provide needs-aligned technical assistance.