River Islands Academies
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 475327392
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2015
- Location
- Lathrop, CA, USA
- Phone
- 2092294700
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $45,926,645
- Expenses
- $41,537,020
- Assets
- $40,600,395
- Liabilities
- $9,082,037
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SUSAN DELL'OSSO (PRESIDENT)
- BRENDA SCHOLL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- BRENDA SCHOLL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $321,819 total reported compensation
- CAREY SIMONI (PRINCIPAL): $211,653 total reported compensation
- KRISTEN WENTWORTH-CONDIT (DIRECTOR OF HR/COMPLIANCE): $203,131 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
River Islands Academies operates four public charter schools in San Joaquin County, serving students in grades TK–10. Volunteer Program Mission The mission of River Islands Academies is to provide students with a safe, supportive, character building, orderly educational environment in which each student can achieve his/her potential through specialized technology-based curriculum and experiential learning opportunities. Students will have the opportunity to explore and experience numerous career pathways in technology. Example career pathways include, but are not limited to: information systems specialist; database administrator; software engineer applications; information technology manager, computer graphic artist, web designer, network engineer, programmer, software technician, and software applications support. The “COLLEGE BOUND!” theme will be prominent throughout the Charter...
What it reported doing in 2024
Operation of four (4) public charter schools in san joaquin county serving students from transitional kindergarten (tk) to 10th grade. The schools include: next generation steam academy (grades tk-8), river islands technology academy ii (grades k-8), epic academy (grades tk-8), and river islands high school (grades 9-11). We believe students learn best in educational environments providing real life opportunities to explore, understand and apply the concepts and skills necessary to become independent problem solvers. Students have the opportunity to explore and experience numerous career pathways in technology.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 98% 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 79
- Accountability: 63
- Sustainability: 54
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.9%; rating input score 83
- Program expense ratio: 91.6%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- 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: 60%; rating input score 60; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.6%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.98; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.5%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.5% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 25.6% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 28.6% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 82.9% of revenue deployed · 91.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $38M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $322K · 15 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.8M reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 10 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 55/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 55/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.