Mastery Schools
Legal name: Mastery Charter School - Gratz Campus
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 452107493
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Phone
- 215-866-9000 x 15001
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $26,133,377
- Expenses
- $24,771,100
- Assets
- $24,139,530
- Liabilities
- $9,460,804
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- ERIK ZIPAY (PRINCIPAL): $238,722 total reported compensation
- KATIE WCISLO (ASST PRINCIPAL/DIR OF OPERATIONS): $231,031 total reported compensation
- KATHLEEN MCNULTY (PRINCIPAL): $226,976 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
All students learn the academic and personal skills they need to be truly prepared for postsecondary success and able to pursue their dreams. Mastery Schools provides**COVID-safe in-person learning** by launching weekly COVID testing and investing in ventilation upgrades to improve air quality and circulation. Mastery Schools ensures every student has full access to technology, laptops, and home internet access, to support their learning. Mastery Prep Elementary** adds 4th grade. Our positive, caring culture supports student and staff success. We like fun. We love to laugh. Straight Talk We face reality, communicate honestly and respectfully, and hold each other accountable.
What it reported doing in 2024
Mastery schools integrates educational best practices and effective management to drive student achievement. Our academic staff is outstanding and relentlessly committed to student achievement and continually improve their craft through highly-effective professional development, coaching, and collaborative support. Instruction is grounded by a common pedagogical vision and guided by rigorous standards-based curricula. We align assessments to clear and meaningful objectives and use assessment data to target areas of need.mastery charter school-gratz campus serves students in grades 7-12.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 86% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 86.7%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.2%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.97; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.39; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.2%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.8% per year; rating input score 100; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.7% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 80% of revenue deployed · 86.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $21.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $239K · 16 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $5.2M reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 13 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.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.