Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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 wrote:

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 wrote:I am puzzled why parents would enroll their kids in this school. Looking at private school review there aren’t even 100 students grades preschool through 8th. No grade has more than 10 students in the entire grade. Both kindergarten and first grades have only 8 students per grade.

https://www.privateschoolreview.com/feynman-school-profile

And for it being a “gifted” school they don’t even have a cut off for scores and have a vague definition of gifted so most likely they accept anyone.

In other cities school for gifted students actually has certain IQ scores they are looking for. Like Mirman school in LA they list an IQ of 138

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Any Feynman parents adept at analyzing tax returns?
The Form 990 for fiscal year ending in 6/22 notes the number of financial aid grant given (53) for a total of $473,160 (p. 30) and also identifies a (relatively small) loan to the founders on p. 31. Query whether anyone can figure out enough of the financial situation so parents can decide what steps to take next.

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!)

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 wrote: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 wrote: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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Any Feynman parents adept at analyzing tax returns?
The Form 990 for fiscal year ending in 6/22 notes the number of financial aid grant given (53) for a total of $473,160 (p. 30) and also identifies a (relatively small) loan to the founders on p. 31. Query whether anyone can figure out enough of the financial situation so parents can decide what steps to take next.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Any Feynman parents adept at analyzing tax returns?
The Form 990 for fiscal year ending in 6/22 notes the number of financial aid grant given (53) for a total of $473,160 (p. 30) and also identifies a (relatively small) loan to the founders on p. 31. Query whether anyone can figure out enough of the financial situation so parents can decide what steps to take next.

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...

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 wrote:
Any Feynman parents adept at analyzing tax returns?
The Form 990 for fiscal year ending in 6/22 notes the number of financial aid grant given (53) for a total of $473,160 (p. 30) and also identifies a (relatively small) loan to the founders on p. 31. Query whether anyone can figure out enough of the financial situation so parents can decide what steps to take next.