A worked example
Every screen a leader sees between Monday’s inbound and Friday’s review, in the order they see it, on a school that does not exist.
Example. Cedar Hollow is invented; no figure here comes from a real school.
The example was written by hand to show the shape of the product, in the product’s own words. Nothing on this page is the output of a model, and nothing is drawn from a customer’s workspace. For real Council output, unedited, read the public session.
The school
Cedar Hollow Charter Academy
An invented K-8 charter school, one campus, 430 students budgeted, with an outside business-services provider.
Step 01
Three things reached the desk on Monday. Each was filed in Sources with who sent it and when. Alta read them and proposed what it found; nothing became a record until a person kept it.
Dana Ortiz, Ridgeline Business Services
A monthly note, pasted in · Monday, October 5
“The October 1 count came in at 418 against the 430 we budgeted. Cash at the end of September was 71 days. The per-pupil payment adjusts in January based on this count.”
Priya Raman, board chair
An email, pasted in · Monday, October 5
“Can we see the renewal timeline at the November 12 meeting? I would like the board to know what is coming next spring.”
Luis Herrera, office manager
A figure, typed in · Monday, October 5
“Waitlist applications on file for grades 1 to 3: 14.”
October 1 count: 418 students, against a budget of 430.
Source: Dana’s note
Cash on hand at September 30: 71 days.
Source: Dana’s note
Charter renewal application. Deadline: unverified. The board chair’s email says “next spring”; the official text has not been read.
Source: Priya’s email
Prepare the renewal timeline for the November 12 board meeting. Owner: you. Due November 9.
Source: Priya’s email
Hold enrollment at budget through the January adjustment.
Source: Dana’s note, read against the budget
Reduce reliance on the outside provider for monthly reporting.
Source: Inferred
The rejected priority is the point. Alta proposes; it does not decide what the school cares about.
Step 02
Tuesday, October 6, before the day starts: three items at most, ranked by rule. Each says why now, what it relates to, where the evidence came from, and the one thing Alta can prepare next. By email too, once you authorize it; a link in the email opens Alta signed in and never approves, sends, or changes anything.
Step 03
You asked for the decision brief the first item offered. Alta drafted it from the records on file, named every source, and said what it could not establish rather than filling the gap.
The October 1 count is 418 against a budget of 430 (Dana Ortiz, October 2). Fourteen waitlist applications are on file for grades 1 to 3 (Luis Herrera, October 5). Cash at September 30 was 71 days (Dana Ortiz, October 2). The per-pupil payment adjusts in January on this count.
The dollar effect of 12 students: the per-pupil rate is not on file, so Alta has not estimated it. Whether the 14 waitlisted families are eligible to enroll mid-year under the school’s own enrollment policy: the policy text is not on file. Whether the January adjustment is applied once or spread across the remaining payments.
1. Offer seats now from the waitlist in grades 1 to 3, up to the 12-student gap. 2. Hold enrollment and plan a January spending adjustment once Ridgeline estimates the effect. 3. Both: offer the seats the policy allows now, and plan for the remainder.
Option 3. It rests on one assumption: that mid-year enrollment from the waitlist is allowed under the enrollment policy. If it is not, option 2 is the only one left, and the estimate from Ridgeline becomes the next decision’s first input.
Whether mid-year enrollment from the waitlist is permitted is a question for the enrollment policy and, if the policy is silent, for the authorizer. Alta has not answered it.
Sources
Step 04
You edit, approve, or discard. The approval is recorded with who gave it, when, and exactly what was approved; if the draft changes afterwards it needs approving again.
You changed the recommendation to “offer 8 seats now, in grades 1 and 2 where the class sizes allow, and hold the rest,” and approved it.
Alta then proposed the decision and two commitments for the record below. You accepted both commitments and named their owners; one owner works for the outside provider and has no account.
Step 05
The decision, its rationale and sources, and the commitments that follow from it. Alta keeps a reported fact, its own reading, a proposal, an approved decision, an accepted commitment, and completion evidence apart, and labels each one.
Offer seats to the first 8 eligible waitlist families in grades 1 and 2
Estimate the January per-pupil adjustment at 418 students
Prepare the renewal timeline for the November 12 board meeting
Charter renewal application
UnverifiedAs Alta proposed it, October 5
Charter renewal application
VerifiedAfter Luis read the official calendar, October 7
Alta never marks a deadline verified. A person does, against the official text, and the record says who and when.
Step 06
Alta drafted the follow-up the third brief item offered. You approved it, and it left once, by email, to the recipient you named. The record shows what came back and what did not.
Subject: Two things from the October note
Dana, thank you for the October note. Two things before Friday, if you can. First, the January adjustment: could you estimate it at 418 students, and say whether it lands once or across the remaining payments? Second, the audit fieldwork: a line on where it stands would let me answer the board. Thank you.
The draft asked for the provider’s figures and volunteered none of the school’s. Alta does not put a school’s internal numbers in a message to an outside party unless the leader writes them in.
What came back. Luis reported the waitlist offers done on October 15, with the enrollment log as evidence. Nothing came back from Ridgeline by October 12, so on October 19 the record shows No update received on the estimate. That is a fact about the record. It does not say the work is undone, and Alta does not guess.
Step 07
Friday, October 9: a review written by rule from the records above. No model writes any of it, so nothing here can be invented.
The pilot starts with a conversation with the founder about what is in front of you, then setup: the people who owe you updates, the priorities and obligations you confirm, and the first morning brief.