The Grove School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 330829596
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Redlands, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9097987831
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Secondary, High School
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,298,393
- Expenses
- $4,380,086
- Assets
- $2,310,317
- Liabilities
- $377,657
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
People named in this filing
- Dean Silliman (Member)
- Damian Hobson (Member)
- MargaretAnn Harrison (Secretary)
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
Grove High School is a California Public Charter School with a Montessori teaching philosophy that serves 238 students in grades 7-12.
What it reported doing in 2024
Grove High School (Grove) is a public charter school with a Montessori-based teaching philosophy serving 116 high schools in Redlands. Most Grove students score at or above statewide averages on California state standards tests. Montessori education is experiential and focuses on teaching the whole person, with a lot of cross-curricular instruction. Emphasis is placed on real-world application of knowledge and on enabling students to adapt the problem-solving skills learned in the school environment to situations in the larger community. Grove's high school encourages each student to complete 30 hours of community service and 40 hours of internship each year to further apply their classroom education to a non-academic environment. A middle school was added in 2024. The middle school is locate don a 9-1/2 acre farm, and serves 141 students in grades 7-9. The farm component embodies the Montessori teaching that children need to be outdoors and close to the land. Grove's teacher: student ratio continues to be low, with a ratio of 1:16.3 in 2024-25. Grove's mentoring program, in which each teacher has a group of students they check in with, provides further social-emotional support for Grove's student body. Each student is assigned a mentor teacher, and each week the students meet with their mentor teachers to assess progress, obstacles, have a general emotional wellness check, and learn about resources that could help the student achieve their goals.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 96% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65%; rating input score 65
- Program expense ratio: 63.4%; rating input score 63
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.9%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.2% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65% of revenue deployed · 63.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 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: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 49/100.