Community School of West Seattle
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770590799
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Phone
- 2067632081
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Primary, Elementary Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,496,279
- Expenses
- $1,410,558
- Assets
- $1,154,843
- Liabilities
- $808,700
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- LUPITA COVARRUBIAS (Director): $55,100 total reported compensation
- WHITNEY YOUNG (Director): $26,364 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of CSWS is to create a space in which our community of children, teachers and families can be an educational team. Collaboratively, we will work to inspire and support curiosity, confidence, empathy, resiliency, and the social emotional well-being of every child. Our curriculum is based on the principles of respect, responsibility and community through play, exploration and (Continued on Schedule O, Statement 2)
What it reported doing in 2024
The Community School of West Seattle (CSWS) is a creative, exploratory and play-based preschool that each year serves 85 children between 3-5 years old, and their families, as well as a monthly "Community Play Date" for children of all ages and their caregivers. At CSWS we believe play is the vital work of childhood and that young children learn by doing. Through authentic, emergent, project and play-based learning, the school strives to develop each student socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically, so that every child will gain a sense of self and life-long confidence. The school's multi-age and anti-bias approach allows children to learn from and support each other. We are inspired by Reggio philosophy and the Project Approach as foundations for our work with children. We provide educational offerings to families as a way to strengthen our community and support the school as a whole, volunteer opportunities and events. CSWS is committed to anti-bias, social justice, and racial equity, including our work in the community, our families and children. Financially, we are committed to running a lean organization so that we can keep tuition costs reasonably low for families while still being fiscally responsible to our operation costs and providing a fair and livable wage for our staff. To ensure access for as many families as possible, CSWS accepts all state and city subsidies as week as partner with Seattle Preschool Program to provide an entire low-cost preschool classroom.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 97% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.2%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 87.2%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $1.27 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.7%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.82; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.7; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.8%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.7% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.7% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.8% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 82.2% of revenue deployed · 87.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $55K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 4/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 51/100.