ANAHEIM, Calif. – When an online charter school in Anaheim needed to shore up its cash flow, its lack of collateral nearly derailed efforts to obtain a line of credit.
But its lender, Citizens Business Bank, introduced an option that the school, Epic California Academy, had not been aware of – the state’s Small Business Loan Guarantee Program. With state’s guarantee to back 80% of funding, Epic was able to secure a $500,000 line of credit in February 2024.
“The line of credit has helped us a great deal,” said Ingrid Joshua, senior director of business operations. “It moved us away from factoring our receivables and allows us to keep up with our cash flow and salaries. We are 100% virtual, therefore workforce is our largest expense. We partnered with Citizens Business Bank and they found for us the program that secured those monies for us, and it's been working like a charm. It's been very helpful to our operations.”
“This program has been extremely beneficial and helpful for us,” said Paul MacGregor, Epic’s executive director. “We're really glad we were introduced to it and can use it because it’s saved the school money, which saves the state money, and has been a lot more efficient and convenient.”
The loan guarantee was administered by Small Business Development Corporation of Orange County in Santa Ana, one of seven financial development corporations around the state that offer the loan guarantee and other programs and services to small businesses. The development corporations operate under the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank).
Epic’s funding, which also covered vendor payments, temporarily filled a gap that occurred due to the timing of state funds. Epic California Academy is a public charter school operating under the Orange County Board of Education with around 1,100 students in TK through 12th grade. Epic operates with more than 70 employees. The academy functions entirely online with teachers meeting in person or online with their students who reside throughout five counties contiguous to Orange County.
“Before [COVID-19 pandemic], it was our model that all teachers met in person with the parent and the student at least once a month,” said MacGregor. “But once COVID happened and normalized virtual learning a little bit more, even in our model parents started to like the virtual meetings because they were used to them. We evolved our model to allow the virtual face-to-face meetings. You could imagine the logistics of having to assign rosters to teachers, and the driving that our teachers used to have to do. But now the car time has lessened and the actual direct instruction time has increased.”
During the pandemic, Epic and other online charter schools took on additional students given their already-established virtual structure, although they were not provided with additional state revenue. They also helped traditional district schools implement online learning structures. Following the pandemic, enrollment at Epic increased as families sought the convenience of ongoing, quality virtual learning, MacGregor said.
At Epic California Academy, teachers personalize the students’ education plans in an independent learning format. The students work on their own with a plan that is based on assessment data and education history. State-approved core curricula is used, as well as supplemental curricula to fill in the gaps. All of Epic’s teachers hold California teaching credentials. “There is additional training that we provide our teachers on how to be supervising teachers in the Epic model. Epic is a unique education environment and a different type of education management program than just showing up in their classroom every day,” MacGregor said. “It is a big learning curve. But once teachers get it down, they love it. They love the flexibility, they love the personalization. And we have very high retention of our teachers.”
Epic California Academy began in 2016 as Epic Charter School and rebranded in 2024 to differentiate it from other Epic Charter schools in California and across the country. “We are super excited about Epic California Academy because we finally have our own localized identity and our own unique model that we've evolved over the years, and we finally have a mascot,” MacGregor said. “There’s no better mascot to represent California than the bear. That's who we are.”
(This article is found in the SBDC-OC 2023 Annual Report: https://bit.ly/3XSzLPJ)
