Information for Prospective Vendors

revised 1/10/07

Golden Valley Charter School is a California public charter school, serving home-schooled students in grades K-12.  Our students reside in Ventura, Los Angeles, Kern and Santa Barbara counties.  Golden Valley is committed to parental choice in education.  Parents are free to choose curriculum and services that appropriately address their child’s educational needs.  Each student is provided with a certain amount of instructional funding which may be used to purchase materials or to pay for approved educational activities and services. 

Each Golden Valley family is assigned an Education Specialist, the ES.  The ES is a fully credentialed teacher who works with the enrolled students and their families to document learning and attendance, provide educational support, and to help the family meet school and state requirements. 

Parents initiate the vendor approval process when they locate a vendor from whom they would like to purchase goods or services, using school instructional funding.  When a parent finds a vendor they are interested in getting approved, they approach the vendor to see if they are interested in becoming approved and working with Golden Valley.  If the vendor is interested, the parent works with his or her ES to complete the initial Request for Vendor Approval.  

Why would an organization wish to become an approved vendor with Golden Valley?  Doing so will allow our students to use school funding to purchase materials or appropriate educational services from an organization.  We have some requirements with which an organization must comply in order to become an approved vendor.  Basically, the organization must be a business that is open to the public.  The business must be willing to accept purchase orders and invoice for payment after the receipt of the goods or services.  During the approval process, potential service vendors will provide a copy of their business license as well as a copy of a certificate of liability insurance for a minimum of $1,000,000.  For specifics of the vendor approval requirements, please see Vendor Approval Guidelines.

Once a vendor is approved, when parents find a service that they would like for their child, they provide their ES with information on the dates, time and price of that service.  The ES then submits a purchase order for the service.  Once the PO is approved through the school’s business office, the purchase order is faxed to the approved vendor.  This purchase order is a guarantee to the approved vendor that Golden Valley will pay for the child’s participation in their services.  Once the child has received these services, the vendor invoices Golden Valley Charter School for payment; the vendor may choose to invoice either at the end of service or on a monthly basis. 

Thank you for considering becoming an approved vendor for our school.  Golden Valley and its growing number of students greatly appreciate any additional materials and services that become available to address our students’ differing educational choices and needs.

If you have any further questions, please contact our school office at 805-642-3435.