Montessori Education Centre
Legal name: Montessori Education Centre Charter School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 860825401
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Mesa, AZ, US
- Phone
- (480) 926-8375
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,730,156
- Expenses
- $5,022,961
- Assets
- $820,623
- Liabilities
- $445,624
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Tamara Whiting (President)
- Rachel Lichtenberger (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Tamara Whiting (President): $98,406 total reported compensation
- Rachel Lichtenberger (Vice President): $96,652 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide a nurturing, child-centered educational environment that fosters independence, curiosity, and a lifelong love of learning through the Montessori method.
What it reported doing in 2024
The School provides K-6 educational services to students in Arizona as a public charter school. The School is committed to the development of the whole child by providing students a well-rounded, individualized educational and developmental experience that is grounded on Montessori principles.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 96% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 66
- Sustainability: 19
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 98.5%; rating input score 98
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: -6.2%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.54; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.9%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 3 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 98.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $98K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.