Explorer Elementary Charter School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 330827996
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2013
- Forms available
- Form 990 2013
- Location
- San Diego, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6198145084
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,297,954
- Expenses
- $1,347,770
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2013. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MIKE SEAL (PRINCIPAL/CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- MIKE SEAL (PRINCIPAL/CEO): $124,797 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2013. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The School's mission is to create caring, confident, life-long learners in a compassionate learning community that respects and values each child's interests, abilities, learning styles, and cultural and ethnic background.
What it reported doing in 2013
OPERATE A K-5 PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL: Explorer Elementary emphasizes a social-emotional curriculum through which students learn critical thinking skills and develop positive relationships with their school and community. Explorer continues to demonstrate exceptional academic achievement with students well-prepared for advancement to middle school.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 88% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 93% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 16
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 84.3%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $449.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 97; 97th 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: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.8%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.3%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: -32.9% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -71.4% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 84.3% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $125K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2011 to 2013
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 4 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.