Great Oaks Charter School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 451260087
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Newark, NJ, USA
- Phone
- 8622560909
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $57,559,341
- Expenses
- $56,801,219
- Assets
- $20,151,281
- Liabilities
- $2,284,506
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JARED TAILLEFER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- JARED TAILLEFER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $245,430 total reported compensation
- CHIFFON RUSHFORD (CHIEF SCHOOLS OFFICER): $203,117 total reported compensation
- CHARLISE MANUEL PAPUSSECO (DEPUTY CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $197,324 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 charter school is a non-profit organization established for the purpose of operating and maintaining a public school under a charter granted by the state of New Jersey. The charter promotes educational reform through innovation. The charter schools overarching mission is to prepare the students to succeed in college.
What it reported doing in 2024
The charter school completed the 2024-2025 fiscal year with an average daily enrollment of 2,178 students. The charter school is founded on the understanding that students have ownership and responsibility for their own educational processes and their future. Accordingly, the curriculum was established using effective, research-based educational practices, hands-on, problem based service learning adventures and grade appropriate core academic materials with particular focus on the New Jersey core curriculum content standards. For the year ended june 30, 2025, the educational program was designed to meet the diverse needs of individual students, including at risk students, english language learners (ell) and students with special needs.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 97% 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. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 51
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 57.1%; rating input score 57
- Program expense ratio: 57.8%; rating input score 58
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 1.3%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.4%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -3.7% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 57.1% of revenue deployed · 57.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $32.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $245K · 16 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.1M reported
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 58/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D expense reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 48/100.