Cornerstone Christian Schools Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 820488252
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Lewiston, ID, USA
- Phone
- 2087987149
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $491,322
- Expenses
- $472,436
- Assets
- $135,467
- Liabilities
- $8,618
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lynn Ridinger (President)
- Marvin Kym (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Lynn Ridinger (President): $35,208 total reported compensation
- Christina Kessler (Secretary): $25,208 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Cornerstone Christian School is a private Christian elementary school serving grades kindergarten through 8th with this mission: God has called us to raise and educate our children in a Christian environment while extending this opportunity to other families who may have similar desires. Therefore, our intention is to provide Christ centered education with challenging academics in a manner conducive to this calling.
What it reported doing in 2025
Operated a Christian school for 107 students in the spring semester of academic year 2024-2025 and 112 students in the fall semester of academic year 2025-2026.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 76% 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 43
- Sustainability: 32
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88.8%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 92.4%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 50%; rating input score 50; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: 3.8%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.29; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.8%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 88.8% of revenue deployed · 92.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $436K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $35K · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 25/100.