School Innovations & Advocacy (SI&A) is a full-service, multifaceted education services company founded by Jeff Williams, its Chief Executive Officer, as MCS Education Services in February 2003. Our new name, which became effective on November 1, 2004, was created to better reflect the company’s expanded capabilities, deep-service model, and its bringing together the most respected management team in California’s education sector.

Mr. Williams had a dual mission in mind when he founded the company. He envisioned a company whose core values could combine his lifelong passion for education with his considerable training and experience in finance, taxation and accounting.

He felt that overburdened and under-funded school districts and county offices of education often needed an efficient, reliable “back-office” operation — an administrative partner that would allow districts to devote their energy and resources to doing what they do best: educate children.

In less than two years, he built a team of the most respected names in California’s education sector, the business world, the legislative arena, and the technology field. He hired compliance and quality assurance experts, auditors, and consultants, and carefully trained support staff to ensure school districts’ mandate reimbursement claims stood up to the rigorous standards of the State Controller’s Office and other regulatory agencies.

His goal was not only to ensure that his company’s clients received every dollar to which they were entitled under the state’s school mandate program, but also to create an array of services and products that could help return California’s education system to its status as a national model of scholastic achievement and fiscal effectiveness.

SI&A takes a great deal of pride in its mission to serve the needs of California’s school districts with a combination of business acumen, compliance expertise and rigorous quality control. We pay close attention to our clients’ needs and have an unparalleled record for gaining approval for their mandate claim reimbursements.

SI&A is also a tireless and resourceful legislative advocate for its clients, which includes nearly 65 percent of the state’s school districts. We meet with the Governor’s Office and State Legislators, and regularly appear before the State Controller’s Office (SCO) and numerous other governmental and private organizations on the issue of mandated cost reimbursements. This activity — along with our vigilant monitoring of the regulatory environment at all levels of government — allows for constant communication and highly effective relations with the mandate community.

Since founding the company, Mr. Williams and his management team — which includes President Kevin Gordon, the former Executive Director of the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) — have enhanced the company’s industry leadership by implementing several key initiatives designed to strengthen mandated cost consulting services to California school districts and county offices of education.

Unique to our company is the team approach we take on behalf of our clients. In addition to providing each district with a personal consultant, we also offer a territory coordinator, a regional manager, a site service team of trainers and data collectors, as well as a core business hours Help Desk to ensure that questions are answered quickly — and, more important, accurately. In our offices, technology professionals, claim preparers, quality control specialists and compliance experts affirm our commitment to providing consistently exceptional products and services.