Feynman School Closing
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Anonymous
| Maybe they thought that the Covid jumps for private would last and they did not? |
Anonymous
Not a Feynman parent, but a nonprofit consultant who has spent many years working with independent schools. The loan is weird, IMO. Very weird. I've never seen something like that. And looking back at older 990s, it just gets weirder. Possibly multiple $24,500 loans, but it's hard to say for sure. Definitely a super weird one in FY15, where the Golds made a loan to the school but then the school loaned them money. Nothing about the financial aid amount strikes me as unusual. The average amount of aid actually decreased a but from FY22 to FY23. There was a significant decrease in the amount of aid awarded from FY21 to FY22. They raised very little money. FY22 and FY23 saw significant government grants ($400k+), but otherwise, fundraising was nearly nonexistent. I don't know any independent school that can survive without halfway decent fundraising. Though the lack of fundraising doesn't surprise me given that they spent virtually nothing on it. The biggest fundraising expense each year is occupancy, and frankly I'm rolling my eyes at that. You shouldn't be able to charge 5% of your occupancy costs to something you otherwise only allocated $360 out of $2.2 million in expenses. I wonder what all that government money is. Maybe private school vouchers paid directly to the school? (I'll admit, I'm not super familiar with Maryland's program, since I work primarily with schools and nonprofits in the Carolinas) To me, the biggest red flag is the fact that 2 of the 5 Board members are not only employed by the school. but are married to each other. The second biggest is there's nearly zero turnover of Board members. That's a recipe for not exercising effective oversight--and given the sudden closing of the school and apparent financial mismanagement, that's exactly what happened here. I don't see the names of Board members posted anywhere on the website, nor do I see Robert Gold's name anywhere, despite being the Executive Director and pulling in a substantial salary. It appears the books were never audited by an outside accountant. That's terrifying to me. There's a serious lack of basic transparency. If Feynman School came to me as a prospective client, I would run the other direction. The 990s are waving more red flags than a Chinese embassy. As to what steps parents should take next, I can't say. I'm not a lawyer or a tax expert. I would be demanding answers, though. Demand the articles of incorporation--they should spell out what is supposed to happen when a nonprofit ceases operations, including what to do with assets. Demand Board meeting minutes--although typically organizations can keep these private, given the significant amount of government grants that last two years they may have to make these available, check Maryland law. Demand answers about those loans, ask why the 990s are so inconsistent (ex: 2021 990 Part VII Compensation of Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, Highest Compensated Employees, and Independent Contractors shows $195,913, yet Part IX Functional Expenses lists Compensation of current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees as $176,984. Those should match!) |
Anonymous
This is tremendously helpful, thank you! |
Anonymous
| As far as I know, Robert Gold left the school a while back. And I heard was not taking a salary when he was there. Can you tell if his salary ever ended?? |
Anonymous
| Isn’t it the case that all private schools in MD need to carry E&O insurance? I would request details on this policy. |
Anonymous
Great analysis. And I agree about all the red flags! This situation serves as a reminder for parents to review and consider financial records from their private school. This one on its face looks like total financial mismanagement and lack of oversight by the board. Could the government grants have been related to pandemic relief funds? Or maybe they qualified for a special grant or loan related to the move and relocation? |
Anonymous
| Perhaps a local news reporter would take interest in this story, even though it was a small school. that could help with pressure on school officials if they are facing public scrutiny. Try reaching out to whoever reported on The Whittle School as they may have a particular interest and understanding of the issues. |
Anonymous
Nonprofit consultant who replied earlier. Robert Gold was paid nearly $12,000 in the fiscal year ending 6/30/2023, plus an additional $8,500 in "other compensation." While it is possible he stepped down mid-year, there is no indication he did so like I typically see when that occurs. For the fiscal year ending 6/30/2022, Robert Gold was paid just over $96k with and additional $11k in other compensation. From the 990s, it appears Robert Gold was paid every year. Begining in 2015 the amount increased dramatically. |
Anonymous
This info should be on file with the state |
Anonymous
Nonprofit consultant. I don't think those are pandemic relief funds. I could be wrong, but the timing doesn't seem right. But as I noted up thread, I don't work with Maryland nonprofits anymore, so it's possible there were programs I am unaware of. I just want to add I don't think I've ever seen a school that has both an Executive Director and Head of School. And for a school that small? It makes absolutely no sense. I'd never heard of Feynman School before this thread, but this just screams some couple's passion project. I see this all the time. They have no or little business experience, find a couple friends and family to round out the Board they are legally required to have, and proceed to operate their nonprofit like an absolute dumpster fire all while proclaiming how committed they are to their given cause. They think they're unique and special and doing someone no one else is doing, except there's 5 other well-established nonprofits already doing the same work (2 of those are well run, the other 3 have enough inertia to keep going despite batpoop governance and financial practices). And no amount of presenting market research, best practices, or even going over their financials will convince them otherwise. They all think some angel donor is going to magically appear and drop huge donations on them. Meanwhile, their finances are a mess, there's no oversight by the board, and they're loving in law la land until the harsh reality of "we can't pay this month's bills and there's no more money coming in" hits them square in the face. |
Anonymous
| Sorry for the typos, doing this on my phone! |
Anonymous
I'm similarly puzzled as well. Some of the reviews are...oof. It seems like a scam. Also, 10 kids in a grade? I thought it was socially stifling being in a middle school class of 80, many of whom I had known since kindergarten, I can't imagine only having 9 other people in the grade. |
Anonymous
Are you sure you aren't a Feynman parent? Because you couldn't have been more accurate. All of it down to the thinking an angel donor will magically appear. It is 100% their passion project. The head of school is a great educator, loves the kids, and definitely passionate, but has no executive function whatsoever. But we all put up with it because our kids were getting a great education tailored to his/her needs and were loving school. It also didn't start appearing like the dumpster fire of no executive function was a real problem until we were ambushed at back-to-school night with some aggressive fundraising pleas. |
Anonymous
Nope, it's just an all-too-familiar story in the nonprofit world. There's a lot of people out there with good hearts and have great intentions. I don't doubt their commitment to what they're doing; bad actors out to make financial gains under the guise of nonprofits are thankfully exceedingly rare in my experience. But all the good hearts and great intentions in the world can't compensate for poor management, unfortunately. When I do board trainings and tell them they are responsible for this business, the most frequent reaction I get is utter confusion. "But we're not a business!" Yes, you are. You're just a nonprofit business. And, yes, there is often a charity component, but at the end of the day, still a business. It's actually fairly easy to conceal the dumpster fire from view for a surprisingly long time. Boards that don't exercise their legally mandated fiduciary duties are a huge part of the problem (often because the board members are friends and family of the founder). Plus, it's not like the average person goes hunting for 990s to review them before making decisions to make a gift or send their child to a school, let alone combs through websites to see if Board and leadership staff is listed (let alone hunting to see who has served in what positions and for how long!). Most of us are trusting that nonprofit charities, schools, etc are doing to right thing, we're not looking for red flags. It's not until the smack-in-the-face moment that such issues usually burst into the public sphere. (See: Eagle Academy Public Charter School. A little different, but unless you were looking for potential red flags, none of it was easy to see until they were already over the cliff) Sometimes I drive my husband crazy because I review 990s and websites of any nonprofit we consider supporting. Local little league asks for donations to support field repairs? I'm going to be combing through 5 years of 990s before I make a decision. Currently were exploring independent school.options for our child and I'm pouring over these things in addition to "normal" things like academics, facilities, special programming, etc. At our church I insisted we needed to be transparent about who the trustees are by posting it online, announcing meetings well in advance, providing a high-level budget to the congregation, and making sure people understand where their gifts are going--especially since we have a growing non-religious outreach programming department. People who don't attend the church participate and make gifts supporting that program, they should feel welcome to ask about how those funds are being spent, who is in charge of those decisions, and they we are transparent and honest with them. These are all fairly easy and straightforward things to do, yet so many nonprofits don't. |
Anonymous
| My kid attended Feynman School several years ago. I am sure the school could have and should have do better on a lot of things. However, I will always be grateful that they provided in-person program for 2020-2021 school year, while the whole MCPS and most private schools that I know had only online classes. |