New Beginnings Family Academy Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
061578214
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Bridgeport, CT, USA
Phone
2033842897
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Charter Schools

Reported finances

Revenue
$7,647,711
Expenses
$8,466,905
Assets
$6,715,381
Liabilities
$3,064,857

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RONELLE P SWAGERTY (CEO)
  • DONALD FOLEY (PRESIDENT)
  • LASHEA HALL (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • RONELLE P SWAGERTY (CEO): $203,635 total reported compensation
  • PAMELA DALTON (CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER): $164,737 total reported compensation
  • VALORE TURNER (UPPER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL): $156,190 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

New beginnings family academy provides its students a meaningful, high-quality education through experience-based learning that helps develop essential social, emotional and critical-thinking skills. This gives all children a foundation to achieve their full potential at every stage of life.

What it reported doing in 2024

Operation of a charter school providing full day pre-k through 6th grades for 391 students and 38 instructors. Nbfa's research-based and culturally responsive curriculum ensures a solid grasp of essential literacy and numeracy foundational skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and rigorous preparation for challenging secondary education. We are a school with high social-emotional learning capacity. Nbfa's emotionally responsive practice (erp) model attends to the whole child, not just academics. Our diverse team of certified teachers and leaders is comprised of empathic individuals who believe in the transformative power of high-quality education and the potential of every child, regardless of demographics. Selected through a blind lottery, nbfa's hardworking, inquisitive students come from every neighborhood in bridgeport and reflect the various ethnicities and cultures that make up park city. Their families contribute greatly to the school's climate and student outcomes.

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 - 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: 92
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 80
  • Sustainability: 20
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 97.9%; rating input score 98
  • Program expense ratio: 88.4%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $32.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -10.7%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.79; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.46; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.2%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.4% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 97.9% of revenue deployed · 88.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $7.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $204K · 15 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $706K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.