Scale Leadership Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 800933660
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Corona, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9093250710
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $21,253,707
- Expenses
- $21,577,009
- Assets
- $5,348,473
- Liabilities
- $2,205,145
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Lloyd C Shockley (Executive Dir.): $140,426 total reported compensation
- LaToya M Carter (Principal): $100,495 total reported compensation
- Ruby Avendano (Treasurer): $65,762 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 establish a k-12 independent and non-classroom based public charter school that sets students on a path to success in high school, college, and beyond.
What it reported doing in 2024
Scale Leadership Academy is a k-12 public charter school that offers an alternative independent study/online learning options for students with alternative learning styles. SLA's program offerings include online learning, credit recovery, accelerated learning, and program flexibility on a year-round basis. During the 2021-2022 school year SLA served approximately 1,013 students on average. A significant number of students that were enrolled year-round were students that were previously performing below grade level and were seeking learning options that were an alternative to traditional and crowded learning environments.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 81% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 77
- Sustainability: 27
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 97.1%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 95.6%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.5%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.25; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.41; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.4%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 19.2% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.1% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.2% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 97.1% of revenue deployed · 95.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $20.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $140K · 9 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.6M reported
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 36/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.