Pioneer Montessori School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 820360653
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2020
- Location
- Ketchum, ID, US
- Phone
- 2087269060
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,060,014
- Expenses
- $2,035,837
- Assets
- $3,172,026
- Liabilities
- $731,876
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOHN ZOOK (PRESIDENT/TR)
Highest reported compensation
- MOLLY LANSING (HEAD OF SCHO): $133,403 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Pioneer Montessori School, following the vision of Dr. Maria Montessori, provides education for life by nourishing every child’s lifetime love of learning. Our age appropriate environments are designed to teach the whole child and empower each student to realize his or her own potential. Pioneer Montessori School recognizes and nurtures the child’s individual academic needs while following the child’s innate desire to create his or herself. We promote the acquisition of skills by providing a cooperative environment where students’ work is both self-directed and director guided, thus developing the child’s independent thinking skills.
What it reported doing in 2024
The vision of pioneer montessori school is to foster the development of a complete human being oriented to the environment, adapted to his or her time, place and culture. Student population per classroom was: preprimary (toddler ages 18 months to 3 years) - 14 students; primary (ages 3 - 6 years) - 46 students; elementary (ages 6-12 years) - 44 students; total -104 students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 85% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 77% for direct work, and 23% for grants.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 24
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.4%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 80.8%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.31 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
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: 100%; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.2%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.56; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.6%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 78.4% of revenue deployed · 80.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 6 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $133K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 38/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 41/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 44/100.