Escuela Popular
Legal name: Escuela Popular Del Pueblo
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 770354277
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- San José, CA, US
- Phone
- (408) 275-7191
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Specialized Education Institutions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $23,396,504
- Expenses
- $18,995,306
- Assets
- $49,015,778
- Liabilities
- $25,738,389
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PATRICIA REGUERIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- PATRICIA REGUERIN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $332,787 total reported compensation
- OLIVIA CORTES (SCHOOL PRINCIPAL): $207,060 total reported compensation
- MARIA DEL CARMEN BARRERA LOPEZ (INSTRUCTIONAL LEADER): $152,821 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our family learning center believes that teaching is an act of love through which learning is reciprocal. We develop bilingual, bi-cultural students fully prepared to continue onto higher education and empowered to pursue their goals in a global society.
What it reported doing in 2024
Escuela popular (ep) began as a community-based grassroots school to address a growing need for english instruction in east san jose and as a consequence, has been providing educational services since 1986. Within the first year of its operations, the demand for learning and schooling grew rapidly and ep continued to expand in numbers of students, classes, and services to meet the growing needs. Ep currently has 3 academies; k-8th grade dual language academy, 9-12th grade youth academy, and 9-12th grade adult in the pm and am academy.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 96% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. Liabilities are high compared with assets and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 59
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61%; rating input score 61
- Program expense ratio: 73.6%; rating input score 74
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 16th 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: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 18.8%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.58; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.53; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.7%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 61% of revenue deployed · 73.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $14M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $333K · 11 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $1.3M reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.