What are signs a school is struggling or on the verge of closing
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Anonymous
| My DC starting a Baltimore private in the fall and just wondering. Oldfields closing has me worried about the future of some privates in the area. |
Anonymous
| Cancelling food service, asking parents to make donations to make payroll. |
Anonymous
| Low enrollment. |
Anonymous
| A pattern of 990s in the red. |
Anonymous
|
Declining or suddenly low enrollment.
Look at the 990s and see if the spending on compensation is keeping up with inflation. If they're keeping up with building maintenance. Creep of charging parents for things that used to be included in tuition. |
Anonymous
| I am looking at the 990 (2021, 2020) of my DC school. What am I looking for on the form? |
Anonymous
Not OP, but how do you find these for a school? |
Anonymous
|
-A single-sex school starts admitting students of the opposite sex
-Buildings in decay |
Anonymous
|
High faculty & staff turnover
Cutting extracurriculars |
Anonymous
| How do you interpret red Total Functional Expenses and Total Liabilities? |
Anonymous
Stability. You want to see the balance between assets and liabilities remaining constant and net assets growing with inflation |
Anonymous
I’m trying to come up with an example of a single-sex school in the area that switched to coed, and coming up with nothing other than the merger of St. Stephens with St. Agnes to make SSSAS back in the 1990s, which obviously changed both schools but the result is going strong. Has this happened anywhere else? |
Anonymous
Google the name of the school and 990. Usually, ProPublica has them. Some religious affiliate schools may not have them though. |
Anonymous
Make an account on Guidestar.org |
Anonymous
Thanks…found the listing on Guidestar, it says they don’t have the info because it’s a religious organization 🤷♀️ |