WISH Charter Schools
Legal name: Westside Innovative School House Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 364632876
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA, US
- Phone
- 310.642.9474
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $19,113,293
- Expenses
- $17,947,123
- Assets
- $5,162,037
- Liabilities
- $2,420,646
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SHAWNA DRAXTON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- MILES REMER (BOARD PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- SHAWNA DRAXTON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $282,983 total reported compensation
- KIMBERLY JOHNSON (PRINCIPAL): $173,200 total reported compensation
- JESSICA ONEY (PRINCIPAL): $163,332 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
WISH thrives due to our family partnerships. Each year a new team of families joins our existing teams and helps to continue to support our WISH mission of social justice through inclusivity and a whole scholar approach to education.
What it reported doing in 2024
Wish charter is a free public, independent, non-profit, charter school authorized by the los angeles unified school district, operating two public charter schools. Wish community school served 860 students in grades kindergarten through eighth, and wish academy served 283 students in grades ninth through twelfth for 180 days in 2024-25.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 92% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.3%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 85.5%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $555.94 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 6.1%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.29; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.47; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 80.3% of revenue deployed · 85.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $15.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $283K · 16 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $470K reported
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.