PACE Academy
Legal name: Palmetto Achievement Center for Excellence Academy Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 842613516
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Columbia, SC, US
- Phone
- (803) 251-9138
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,849,809
- Expenses
- $3,830,315
- Assets
- $6,514,502
- Liabilities
- $6,813,897
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
People named in this filing
- VACANT (BOARD CHAIR)
- KATRINA MACK-SNIDER (BOARD VICE CHAIR)
- REBEKAH BARNES (TREASURER)
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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Setting the PACE for Academic Excellence in South Carolina
What it reported doing in 2024
Palmetto achievement center for excellence (pace) academy, an alternative education campus (aec), public charter school, provides evidence-based, multi-sensory, structured language instruction to students in the South Carolina midlands. We are committed to providing a quality educational choice for students with dyslexia or other language-based learning differences who would benefit from orton-gillingham instructional methods. All students at pace academy attend an ace (academic core enrichment) class every day for 30-45 minutes. During this ace time, students are placed in groups based on their needs to help close the gap in phonological awareness and decoding skills. Students receive instruction using a structured literacy approach which includes project read (language circle enterprises) and other orton-gillingham based instruction. Pace opened as a new school in the fall of 2021 with 77% of the student population having documented disabilities: 16 students with a 504 plan and 127 students with an individual education plan (iep). Combined with the additional challenges of a global pandemic, many less determined individuals would have quit before they even started! Pace academy is proud to be the first tuition-free school in the midlands for students with dyslexia.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 95% 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: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 45
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.5%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.5%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.7; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.05; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.8% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 80.5% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 36/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 4/100.