“As a startup charter school in California, year one cash flow is always a huge challenge. The state doesn’t send funds until close to October, months after school has started and we needed to hire and pay our teaching staff, purchase curriculum, setup classrooms, pay rent, and so much more. Thankfully, HJ Sims was willing to partner with us to ensure our school can launch on time and with the resources we need to do it well.
The HJ Sims team is not only experienced and thorough, but they are vested in the success of the charter school movement. Rob, Kaiti, and Kyle worked exceptionally hard to ensure that our loan closed just before we had to write our next payroll check. Because of them, our startup plans did not skip a beat.”
– Gary Davis
Executive Director
Partnered Right®
California Republic Leadership Academy Capistrano (CRLA) is a new public charter school coming to the Capistrano California area in the fall of 2023.
CRLA has been granted a 5-year charter to operate by the Orange County Board of Education, their authorizer. The CRLA curriculum will be based on the Core Knowledge Sequence as well as FranklinCovey’s Leader in Me. This curriculum inspires scholars through self-discipline to educate themselves in the principles of freedom and the instructional focus is on leadership education.
CRLA is expecting to reach an enrollment of 222 for their first year and anticipates growing enrollment to 554 in grades TK – 8th by the 2027-28 school year.
Structured Right®
The school had a need for approximately $600,000 in order to fund operational expenses associated with the lead up to its inaugural year.
CRLA was anticipating the state funding to hit their balance sheet within months of the school year beginning, but in order to provide maximum flexibility the repayment of the loan was structured over a 2-year period. The 2023 loan is structured with quarterly interest payments and semi-annual principal payments.
Executed Right®
In order to ensure the CRLA team had adequate funding for their initial operating needs, the Sims team worked with its Private Client Group to provide a mutually beneficial solution that accomplished CRLA’s key goals.
Sims was able to negotiate with both retail and institutional investors to garner the interest for the $600,000 of funds needed by CRLA. The privately placed loan was tailored to meet the needs of CRLA and provided sufficient flexibility to allow the school to focus on its opening and not its capital needs.
Financed Right®
In June 2023, HJ Sims closed on the $600,000 private placement, with the taxable note funded by a combination of private wealth clients of HJ Sims and one institutional account. This loan helped CRLA purchase needed supplies and materials and pay employee salaries in the months leading up to the start of the 2023-24 school year.
For more information, please contact:
Robert Nickell
214.581.0952