Shatila D. Sago-Hart
Outside controller for charter schools

Your accounting firm posts the entries.Nobody reviews them.

Most charter schools between $4M and $15M buy bookkeeping and consume it as controllership. Those are not the same service, and the difference is where every repeat audit finding, every disallowed grant cost, and every surprise deficit comes from.

Where the work actually sits

Every function has an owner, until you get to the ones that matter most.

This is not negligence. It is scope. Nobody is doing this work because it was never written into anyone's engagement letter.

Function
Currently owned by
Status
Journal entries and financial statements
Outsourced accounting firm
Covered
Annual audit fieldwork
Audit firm
Covered
Reviewing what the accountant posted
No one
Not covered
Owning the budget and the enrollment assumption
No one
Not covered
Grant allowability before the money is spent
No one
Not covered
Answering to the authorizer
The school leader, alone
Not covered
Net position
The gap is the risk
Unreconciled
What I take on

Twelve modules, priced separately. Most schools start with one or two.

Controllership

  • Financial diagnostic and remediation plan
  • Budget build and enrollment scenario modeling
  • Month-end close calendar and oversight
  • Board and finance committee reporting

Compliance and audit

  • Audit preparation and finding remediation
  • Federal and state grant compliance
  • Mock desk audit and authorizer reporting
  • Charter renewal financial sections
  • Child nutrition program administration

Systems, people, capital

  • Chart of accounts and ledger integrity
  • Affiliated foundation and inter-entity rules
  • Payroll, HR compliance, and position control
  • Grant writing and revenue development
  • Debt, lien, and distressed finance
What a diagnostic turns up

Findings from recent engagements, without client identification.

$59,000

In prior-year audit adjustments never posted, leaving opening balances that did not agree to the audited financial statements. A repeat of the year before.

34%

Of one school's annual contribution revenue deposited into the affiliated foundation account, against an inter-entity receivable that did not reconcile.

$409,000

Of non-payroll cash out the door in a single year without passing through the invoice approval workflow.

How engagements work

Everything starts with the diagnostic. It ends there, or it converts.

Diagnostic

Fixed fee · 4 to 6 weeks

Transaction-level review of the ledger, the close process, the prior audit and management letter, grant coding, and your accounting firm's actual scope. You get a findings report ranked by severity, an open items tracker with owners and dates, and a remediation plan.

Fractional controller

Monthly retainer

Close oversight, board reporting, grant compliance, and the full audit cycle. Priced in bands by school size and module selection, with a defined monthly hour range and an on-site commitment.

Project

Fixed fee · 6 to 16 weeks

Budget build, audit remediation, grant year setup, chart of accounts rebuild, payroll implementation, or the financial sections of a renewal application.

Interim coverage

Hourly with weekly cap

For schools between business managers or between accounting providers. Includes stabilization of the close and a documented handoff to the permanent hire.

Turnaround

Fixed fee plus milestone

For schools in financial distress, under authorizer scrutiny, or carrying facilities debt and unresolved liens. Cash and payables triage, lender negotiation, and a stabilization plan.

Advisory

Hourly · no minimum

For schools that have the capacity but want a second set of eyes on one specific question.

Background

I have read these files from both sides of the desk.

  • Acting controller for a CPS-authorized charter school, named on the consolidated grant application.
  • Four years inside the authorizer. Chicago Public Schools Office of Budget and Management, overseeing more than $90M in federal and state grant funding across more than 150 charter schools. Application approval, amendment processing, claim approval, and quarterly compliance review.
  • $1.57M+ in competitive grant revenue secured for nonprofit clients across state, county, foundation, and capital funding streams.
  • Distressed finance. Facilities refinance with a mission lender and resolution of federal tax and state employment liens for an arts and education nonprofit. Operating margin moved from 15% to 28%.
  • Twenty years across nonprofit finance, charter school operations, federal grant compliance, human resources, and property management.
  • DBA, Strategic Management · MBA, Information Technology Management.

When not to call me

  • You have a full internal finance department and a sitting controller.
  • You are a network with a central office already doing this work.
  • You want to replace bookkeeping at a bookkeeping price.
  • You are not prepared to give the finance function direct access to the ledger, the payroll system, and the accounting provider.
Next step

Ninety minutes, and no preparation on your end.

A conversation with you and your operations lead, followed by a written scope and fee proposal within five business days. If a diagnostic is not what your school needs, I will tell you that instead.