Coastal Montessori Charter School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 274513777
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Pawleys Island, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8432350413
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,648,678
- Expenses
- $3,134,291
- Assets
- $8,633,031
- Liabilities
- $5,925,398
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- CHRISTOPHER BERGERON (DIRECTOR): $82,886 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To produce highly-educated, self directed, socially-responsible citizens who work colloboratively, respectfully, and peacefully as individual yet interdependent learners in a diverse and nurturing community. Through the unique combination of empirically-validated montessori principles, localized charter governance, and open access, coastal montessori charter school further aims to provide georgetown county school district with an academically excellent, financially accountable public school choice.
What it reported doing in 2024
Organized under the sc charter school act, the school provides academic choice for parents and students, while expanding the capacity of the public school system in georgetown county. The founding coastal montessori charter school (cmcs) planning committee chose montessori because it honors the way children learn naturally, develops the whole child, and produces socially responsible citizens. Cmcs serves a diverse student population; 15% receive special education support, 17% are identified gifted and talented, 13% receive free or reduced lunch, and 34% are categorized as students in poverty. Cmcs offers a montessori education to students in grades first through eighth grade. The two pillars of montessori are discovery learning and developing a child's independence by not doing for the child what the child can do for himself. Montessori is multi-age classrooms, individualized instruction and self-paced learning, hands-on materials, specially trained teachers facilitating each child's own discovery knowledge, freedom from within limits fostering individual responsibility, social as well as academic development, a global perspective which integrates the study of diverse cultures and respect for basic human rights, and stewardship of the environment.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 92% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 74.7%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 85.8%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 14.1%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.75; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.69; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.6%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 74.7% of revenue deployed · 85.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $83K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.