Helix Network of Educational Choices D/b/a Mentorship Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 270777735
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2023
- Forms available
- Form 990 2023
- Location
- Baton Rouge, LA, USA
- Phone
- 2253465180
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $8,870,957
- Expenses
- $9,415,948
- Assets
- $16,142,826
- Liabilities
- $15,546,267
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
People named in this filing
- ARTHUR COOPER (CHAIRMAN)
- WENDI BERTHELOT (DIRECTOR)
- VERONICA SIZER (DIRECTOR)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Mentorship steam academy is a projectbased learning school that emphasizes hands on projects in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art, math, digital arts, film, and music production. Mentorship steam academy is an early college that blends high school and college into a coherent educational program. Mentorship steam academy program aims to prepare all students to undertake a fouryear college or university career pathway. It is rigorous, demands high expectations and provides the foundation for entry and success at the postsecondary level. Mentorship steam academy is designed to include a onetoone laptop program for students and teachers so that visual, handson learning opportunities are available across the curriculum. In the past four years, mentorship steam academy school performance score has increased from a letter grade of a f' to a b approximately 50 points in growth.
What it reported doing in 2023
Mentorship steam academy is a steam based learning high school that emphasizes college, career, and citizenship preparation and development. Mentorship has shown a unique ability to improve school performance scores while continuing to serve a population that is over 80% economically disadvantaged. Enrollment is approximately 400 9th to 12th grade students and most of these students are coming from communities located in the north baton rouge area. Mentorship has been awarded three top gains awards from the Louisiana department of education since 2014. The air force jrotc program was approved by the department of defense and began at mentorship during the 2016 2017 school year. This enhanced mentorship's steam emphasis and gave students all over east baton rouge parish an opportunity to be part of the only air force jrotc program in the parish, and it continues to thrive.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 94% 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.5%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 61.8%; rating input score 62
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.1%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.71; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.96; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 24.3% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65.5% of revenue deployed · 61.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2023
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 6/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.