Spruce Street School
Legal name: Spruce Street School Ps 397 Parent Teacher Assn
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 270492999
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, United States
- Phone
- (212) 266-4800
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public Foundations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $332,696
- Expenses
- $347,957
- Assets
- $419,393
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BRITTANY MURRAY (CO-PRESIDENT)
- HADLEY SEWARD (CO-PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- BRITTANY MURRAY (CO-PRESIDENT)
- HADLEY SEWARD (CO-PRESIDENT)
- SOPHIE YU (CO-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
Spruce Street is a Pre-K-8 public school serving the growing community of Lower Manhattan, engaging students in research and authentic inquiry-based experiences. We transform the youngest members of our local community into contributing members of our global community. Snack is served each day, usually during mid-morning. Since our lunchtime is mid-day, we understand that young children become hungry! Families in each class sign-up for a snack calendar in the beginning of the school year. Class parents coordinate a snack calendar, manage snack sign-up and serve as the liaison between families and the classroom teacher. During those assigned days, we ask each family to provide snack for their child's class. This alleviates having to remember each day, and provides a more communal, collaborative atmosphere for our classrooms. Snack includes time for students to drink water, and...
What it reported doing in 2024
Operating expenses
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 70% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 57% for direct work, and 43% for grants.
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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 24
- Sustainability: 45
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th 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: Limited
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: -4.6%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.21; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -0.4% per year; rating input score 0; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -3.9% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.2% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $348K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 15 of 16 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 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: 2 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.