Brian L. Carpenter, PhD, CFE, Recovering School Leader
What Kinds of Services Do I Offer?
Over the past two-plus decades, I’ve specialized in charter school governance and operations. My services include, but are not limited to:
presenting at board retreats
providing technical assistance on school risk management, financial controls, and HR-related matters
presenting workshops at association conferences and other seminars
producing publications for charter schools (including five books and other resources; see below)
conducting fraud investigations & HR investigations
assisting attorneys in litigation
evaluating board performance
serving as an interim school leader/assisting boards in identifying permanent executives
If you’re a charter school board member, executive, authorizer, attorney, or conference organizer, I invite you to schedule a no-obligation Zoom call to see if I may the person you’re looking for.
My new Board Development DIY Workbook is here! Grab single copies on Amazon for $40, or buy a 10-pack directly from me and save 20% ($32 each).
(for an additional discount on purchases of more than ten , please contact me directly)
The Effective Charter School Board: A DIY Development Workbook
Stop struggling with board-level friction and start building an elite governance team. Built across two decades of client engagements, this newly expanded workbook of over 100 pages is now available as a complete self-guided board development tool.
Easy to work through as a board across 10 or 12 meetings. Key topics and tools include:
My Board CHAMPS Model: Master the 6 core differences between governing and managing.
Collision Avoidance: 5 root causes of board-CEO conflict and 7 practical ways to prevent them.
Financial Oversight & Risk Management: My Three-E Model, 21 financial red flags, 21 essential internal control topics, and how to create heat maps for assessing risk.
Plug-and-Play Templates: Chief Executive job description, Director and Officer Code of Conduct, meeting minutes format, PTO MOUs, and bi-monthly Chief Executive reports.
Academic Governance: My 4-sided framework for evaluating school performance.
Includes full answer keys and guided reflection questions to drive immediate results.
Books & Workbooks
(linked to Amazon)
The Effective Charter School Board: A Board Development Workbook
Charter School Board University: An Introduction to Effective Charter School Governance
The Seven Outs: Strategic Planning for Charter Schools Made Easy
Governing for Greatness: Ten Fundamentals Every Charter School Board Member Needs To Know
Save Your Ship! Systematic Risk Management for Charter Schools
FREE Training Resources
If you’d like to receive free training materials that you can use with your board, simply subscribe. After you confirm your email, you can download the PDF pictured to the right titled, “Follow the Money! It’s Not Financial Oversight if the Board Isn’t Looking” (4th ed.) Then keep an eye on your email because I produce new content periodically.
My Most Recent YouTube Video
Looking to Conduct a Board Self-Assessment?
New Tool as of September 2026! Only $1,750 per School!
Here's a brick wall I've observed many charter school boards run into in my 21+ years of working in the sector: nearly every board agrees they should assess their own performance, but very few actually do. This gap between good intentions and execution exists for two simple reasons:
There are few rigorous, sector-specific assessment tools available.
Boards rarely have access to a governance expert to translate assessment data into actionable steps.
Of the few survey tools I have seen over the years, they strike me as being clunky (e.g., "On a scale of 1 to 5, to what extent do you feel board meetings run efficiently and effectively?") and/or are larded with fluffy questions like "On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfying do you find serving on this board to be?"
Um, yeah. Can I just say that if your board is serious about elevating governance, protecting the charter, and fulfilling its fiduciary duties, questions like those provide zero value. (And don't get me started on averaging 1 to 5 scale ordinal data--a fundamental statistical no-no!)
To solve this problem head-on, I have now packaged my board self-assessment survey into a streamlined, high-impact engagement, consisting of the following:
A Comprehensive 50-Question Diagnostic Survey: Each board member and your chief executive receive secure access to a survey whose questions I've been developing and refining with actual clients for over two decades.
Independent & Anonymous Participation: Everyone completes the online survey at their convenience. Only aggregate responses are shared with the school, thereby preserving individual anonymity.
A Private 2-Hour Strategy Session: Once your survey window closes (on a date you choose), I aggregate the data and lead a live, private two-hour strategy session with your full board and chief executive (or, if you prefer, a committee) to review my findings, address blind spots, and benchmark your practices.
Actionable Next Steps: Your board walks away with concrete, practical recommendations to immediately strengthen governance and oversight. You simply record having completed the assessment in your minutes, and it's official: your board has participated in a meaningful self-assessment of its performance that it can refer back to (for example, at charter renewal time).
TEDx Talk
Click the image to watch a 15-minute a TEDx talk I was invited to give by the Charter Schools Institute at Erskine (CIE) in April 2025. It was titled “Advice We Give to Boards that is Almost Useful.”
I definitely do not consider it to have been my best presentation because I was nervous in front of the camera, but heh, it’s not everyday you get invited to speak at a TEDx event.
