Ryan Shook

Academica

Academica is one of the nation's longest-serving and most successful education service organizations, providing professional services and related support to public charter schools. A pioneer in the charter school movement, Academica was founded in 1999 on the principle that each school of choice is a unique educational environment governed by an independent Board of Directors best qualified to forge its path to student success. Academica works to help its clients achieve their educational and organizational goals, with the clients maintaining complete control over their schools' academic programs, staffing needs, management, and curricula. Our founding mission to facilitate the charter school Governing Board's vision ensures a student-centric focus and remains the cornerstone of our approach. Empowering each client school to pursue specialized educational goals requires a strong commitment to customization, flexibility, collaboration, creative thinking and ongoing dialogue among educators, students and parents. The process enables Academica to expand its service offerings and add to its proven track record of supporting growing networks of high-performing charter schools. The Academica network of charter schools revolutionized the traditional K-12 educational path turning it into a dynamic K-16 network which provides students from all backgrounds and socioeconomic groups with access to a free, high-quality education that includes optional college courses taught by college instructors, located at a school's physical location or delivered online via the Academica Virtual Education web portal. By integrating technology with groundbreaking educational initiatives, Academica can help a school or a network of schools implement a top-notch educational experience for any child. Academica's services for its clients include identification of potential school-sites; assistance with staff recruitment, assistance with human resource coordination, regulatory compliance, legal and corporate upkeep, assistance with the maintenance of its clients' books and records, and assisting its clients with bookkeeping, budgeting, and financial forecasting. Academica has been successful assisting charter school boards develop and execute strategic plans for scaling and replicating high-performing schools.