St. Hope
Legal name: St Hope Public Schools
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 010582508
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Sacramento, CA, US
- Phone
- 916.451.HOPE
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $25,122,008
- Expenses
- $20,582,138
- Assets
- $39,400,420
- Liabilities
- $22,604,961
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- LISA RUDA (SUPERINTENDENT): $308,117 total reported compensation
- ELISHA PARSONS (DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS): $147,826 total reported compensation
- LESLEY EZERO (DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT): $139,061 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
St. HOPE Public Schools is a network of high-performing public charter schools in Sacramento, California, dedicated to providing a rigorous, college-preparatory education that empowers students to succeed in college and beyond.
What it reported doing in 2024
Sacramento charter high: in 2003, sacramento high school was facing state intervention as student performance dropped year after year. That year, st. Hope reopened the school as a public charter, along with ps7, to provide a seamless tk-12th grade education for students who have been traditionally underserved. Ps7 and sac high embody a core commitment to student excellence and college readiness that provides our scholars with the strongest possible foundation for future learning and career success. Shps serves a very specific group of scholars and is the educational home to a higher percentage of black, hispanic/latino, foster and homeless youth than the surrounding school district, city and state. These groups also perform higher than both the school district and state at ps7 & sac high. In 24-25, more than 50% of sac high's graduating class of 2025 were/are the first in their family to attend college. Sac high's panther pipeline program enables students to take college courses and earn both high school and college credit. Sac high is one of two high schools in scusd to offer this dual enrollment program and the only one to offer it in person. Sac high has also expanded the panther pipeline this year to include scholars from all four grade levels 9th-12th.
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 liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 72.5%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 88.2%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 18.1%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.91; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.57; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.9%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 26.5% per year; rating input score 100; 94th 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: 72.5% of revenue deployed · 88.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $18.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $308K · 11 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $849K reported
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 11 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.