General Counsel

Aspire Public Schools Nor Cal - General Counsel

Job Description

About Aspire Nor Cal

Founded in 1998, Aspire Public Schools has served scholars and communities across California for nearly three decades. Following Aspire Los Angeles’s transition into an independent organization, Aspire’s Bay Area and Central Valley regions will come together to form Aspire Nor Cal.

Aspire Nor Cal will operate 22 schools serving approximately 10,000 scholars across Northern California, with schools located in Oakland, Richmond, East Palo Alto, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, and Ceres.

This evolution comes at an important moment for Aspire. Changes in California’s funding, policy, enrollment, and operating environment have created an opportunity to rethink how the organization supports its schools and scholars in its next chapter. The formation of Aspire Nor Cal creates an opportunity to strengthen support for schools across teams previously organized by geography, improve the consistency and effectiveness of school support, and create clear accountability systems for organizational and scholar outcomes.

The new model will require the organization to balance greater coherence across Aspire Nor Cal with responsiveness to the different communities and contexts of its schools.

Aspire Nor Cal enters this transition with a long-standing mission focused on post-secondary success and a deep commitment to educational equity, along with decades of institutional knowledge across its schools and teams. Preserving those strengths while building Aspire Nor Cal as a unified region will be central to the work ahead.

The General Counsel is Aspire Nor Cal's chief legal officer and the legal lead for the President's work on the Aspire Los Angeles separation and on the support office's policies and risk. A member of the Executive team, this leader reports to the President, with a dotted line to the CEO on legal matters, and advises the President, the CEO, the Board and senior leaders on the legal and regulatory issues that shape Aspire Nor Cal's schools and operations, including charter law, governance, employment and labor, student rights, special education, contracts, privacy, and risk.

Aspire Public Schools is in a multi-year restructuring. Aspire Los Angeles becomes an independent organization on July 1, 2027, and the General Counsel will serve as legal lead on the separation, working with the CEO on governance and the President on the operating cutover: separation agreements, charter revisions, regulatory approvals, facilities and financing documents, and the agreements that govern the ongoing relationship between the two organizations.

At the same time, this leader will run a sound, cost-effective legal function for Aspire Nor Cal's schools.

They oversee the legal function and outside counsel, set practical policies and processes that help leaders manage risk on their own, and make sure legal considerations come into major decisions early. The General Counsel gives clear, actionable advice, anticipates risk, and helps leaders move forward with confidence.

Restructuring and Transition

• Serve as legal lead on the restructuring, including separation agreements, revisions to charter materials, California Attorney General notice and approval, and facilities financing, appraisal, and bond documents.

• Administer transition agreements with Aspire Los Angeles, including licensing and contracted service agreements, and identify and manage conflicts of interest between the two organizations.

• Advise on governance and structure across entities, including tax exemption, charitable purpose, and asset transfers.

Governance, Charters, and Compliance

• Own the legal strategy and filings for charter petitions, renewals, and…