KOSON Schools Dba STEM School Highlands Ranch
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 274878116
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
- Phone
- 3036837836
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $21,668,136
- Expenses
- $24,515,433
- Assets
- $15,776,007
- Liabilities
- $21,300
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Erin Quigley (Vice President/Vice Chair)
- Carla Gustafson (President/Chair)
Highest reported compensation
- Matt Cartier (Chief Innovation Officer): $213,010 total reported compensation
- Star Ake (Chief Financial Officer): $184,615 total reported compensation
- Lynann Kovalesky (Interim Elementary Directo): $160,148 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Charter school to provide education to students in grades K-12.
What it reported doing in 2024
Provide education to approximately 1631 students in grades K-12 for approximately 1,700 - 1,850 students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 89% 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 - Most voting board members are independent and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and a relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 51
- Transparency & Controls: 60
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 59%; rating input score 59
- Program expense ratio: 53.9%; rating input score 54
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -13.1%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.64; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.9%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1.1% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 59% of revenue deployed · 53.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $13.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $213K · 17 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 59/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 52/100.