Choate Rosemary Hall
Wallingford, CT·Independent K-12·NAIS member·617 employees on the 990
Choate Rosemary Hall operates in a different regime: $99M of revenue, net assets equal to about 7.9 years of expenses (campus and endowment included), and tuition at 66% of revenue, with the rest from gifts and investment income. Scale like this puts it among the largest schools in the coverage set. Worth asking about strategic priorities: what the school invests in next.
Expenses have outgrown revenue at Choate Rosemary Hall: expenses have grown 6.7% per year against -0.7% revenue growth, a 7.4-point gap held over three years. Expenses already exceeded revenue by 5.9% on the latest Form 990. Net assets equal about 7.9 years of expenses, but they include buildings and restricted gifts, so they are not a measure of how long the school could cover the gap. If the same gap holds for three more years, that compression compounds.
Linear extrapolation only. Schools regularly course-correct via tuition increases, capital campaigns, or expense controls. This is the if-nothing-changes outlook, not a prediction.
Choate Rosemary Hall is a residential boarding school. Boarding schools operate full residential programs on top of academics, which shifts how to read the financials: (a) net assets typically equal more years of expenses than at a day school, because dorms, dining halls, and residential plant sit on the balance sheet and endowments tend to be larger (none of that is cash the school could spend), (b) revenue per student is higher because tuition covers room and board, (c) tuition dependency often runs high alongside a large endowment, so read the two together, (d) staff comp is often higher because residential faculty carry housing and benefits beyond salary. Read the percentiles below against same-segment peers, not the full K-12 cohort.
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FINANCIAL HEALTH
COMPOSITE FINANCIAL INDEX · HIVECHECK ESTIMATE
The Composite Financial Index (CFI) combines four financial ratios into one score. It was developed by KPMG and Prager, Sealy & Co. and is used across higher education and, through NBOA, by independent schools. HiveCheck estimates it from each school’s Form 990, the way the CFI’s co-authors apply it to independent schools.
- Primary reserve (35%) — expendable net assets next to a year of expenses.
- Viability (35%) — expendable net assets next to long-term debt.
- Return on net assets (20%) — are net assets growing?
- Net operating revenues (10%) — did revenue exceed expenses on the 990?
Expendable net assets are the net assets a school could spend: they leave out buildings (net of their debt) and permanent endowment. HiveCheck estimates them from the 990; they are not cash. A school with no long-term debt gets viability’s top score only if they cover about five months of expenses.
The scale runs from −4 to 10, and the CFI’s authors treat 3 as the threshold of financial health. HiveCheck’s labels: 5+ strong; 3 to 5 adequate — monitor; 1 to 3 watch; 0 to 1 re-engineer; below 0 distressed. A label describes a range, not a school. The CFI was built to follow one school over time, so read the trend first.
How HiveCheck estimates the CFI, with sources
HiveCheck is not affiliated with or endorsed by NACUBO, NBOA, KPMG, or Prager, Sealy & Co.
Strong — 7.4 on a scale that runs from −4 to 10. HiveCheck labels 5 and above strong; the CFI’s authors treat 3 as the threshold of financial health. 7.4 is 5 or higher, the range HiveCheck labels strong. It combines four measures from the Form 990: the net assets a school could spend next to a year of expenses and next to its long-term debt, whether net assets are growing, and whether revenue exceeded expenses.
Across 8 fiscal years, the estimate went from 10.0 (FY2018) to 7.4 (FY2025). Its average over the latest 5 years is 7.6, and it was at or above 3 in 8 of 8 years (the line at 3 marks the threshold of financial health).
Financials through FY2025 · 8 yrs on file
FY2025 is the newest public filing on record — not a data gap. IRS Form 990s publish on a one-to-two-year lag, so a school’s most recent audited year usually isn’t available yet. This report always uses the latest filing the IRS has released.
Choate Rosemary Hall reported $99.3M in revenue against $105.2M in expenses in fiscal year 2025: expenses exceeded revenue by 5.9% on the Form 990.
Verify any number in this report against the source IRS Form 990 look up on irs.gov ↗.
HOW TO READ REVENUE, NET ASSETS, AND REVENUE MINUS EXPENSES
Revenue is the total revenue reported on Form 990 for the fiscal year — tuition, fees, contributions, investment income, and other revenue lines combined. Net assets are everything the school owns (cash, investments, buildings, land, endowment) minus what it owes, at year-end (Form 990 Part X, line 32). Much of it can’t be spent: buildings and land, and gifts donors restricted. It is not cash on hand.
Revenue minus expenses is (revenue − expenses) / revenue on the Form 990. It is not an operating margin: 990 revenue includes gifts for buildings and endowment and realized investment gains, and 990 expenses include depreciation, a non-cash cost. One year can swing either way, so read it against the multi-year trend.
NET ASSETS, IN YEARS OF EXPENSES
What this measures: total net assets on the Form 990 divided by a year of expenses, shown in months. Net assets are everything a school owns (cash, investments, buildings, land, endowment) minus what it owes. Much of it can’t be spent: buildings, and gifts donors restricted. For cash available to operate, ask the business office for days of cash on hand or unrestricted liquid reserves; the 990 doesn’t report them.
Net assets equal about 7.9 years (95 months) of expenses. That total includes buildings, land, endowment, and other restricted gifts, so it is not money the school could spend if revenue stopped.
Expendable net assets, the CFI’s measure, leave out permanent endowment and buildings net of their debt: about 4.2 years of expenses (a HiveCheck estimate).
VIABILITY
Viability is expendable net assets ÷ long-term debt: how the net assets a school could spend (total net assets less permanent endowment and buildings net of debt, estimated from the 990) compare with what it has borrowed.
- Below 1.0x — long-term debt exceeds expendable net assets.
- 1.25x — the CFI’s threshold of financial health.
- 4.2x+ — the ratio’s top score in the CFI.
Long-term debt from Form 990 Part X (bonds + mortgages + notes), not total liabilities. Deferred revenue — largely tuition families have already paid for the coming year — and ordinary payables are excluded, because they are obligations to deliver education, not borrowed money. The CFI reads debt by coverage alone, not by its interest rate; the interest line below adds that context.
HOW TO READ NET ASSETS IN MONTHS AND VIABILITY
Net assets in months of expenses is total net assets on the Form 990 divided by a month of expenses. Total net assets include buildings, land, endowment, and other restricted gifts, so the figure is not money the school could spend if revenue stopped. The CFI uses expendable net assets instead: total net assets less permanent endowment and less buildings and equipment net of their debt. HiveCheck estimates that figure from the 990. Neither is cash; for cash available to operate, ask the business office for days of cash on hand, which the 990 doesn’t report.
Viability is expendable net assets per dollar of long-term debt from Form 990 Part X (bonds + mortgages + notes), not total liabilities. The CFI’s authors treat 1.25x as the threshold of financial health; below 1.0x, the net assets a school could spend fall short of what it has borrowed long-term.
WHAT IS BEHIND THE LIABILITIES
“Total liabilities” on a school’s balance sheet mixes three very different things. Long-term debt (tax-exempt bonds, mortgages, notes) is money the school actually borrowed and must repay with interest. Deferred revenue is largely tuition families have already paid for the coming year — an obligation to teach, not to repay; the cash is already in the bank. Other is ordinary payables and accrued expenses that any operating institution carries.
The distinction matters: a school that collects next year’s tuition in advance can show tens of millions in “liabilities” that are not debt at all, making a debt-averse balance sheet look leveraged unless the lines are separated the way they are here.
Total liabilities $94.3M = $33.2M long-term debt (bonds, mortgages, notes) + $47.5M deferred revenue (largely tuition families have already paid for next year: an obligation to teach, not to repay) + $13.5M other.
This split feeds the score above: the viability ratio (35% of the CFI estimate) divides expendable net assets by the $33.2M of long-term debt only — prepaid tuition and ordinary payables are separated from debt in this read.
SEE THE LINE-BY-LINE DETAIL
What the 990 does not tell us: interest rates, maturities, or covenants — those are not disclosed anywhere on the form. The issue dates above tell you the rate ERA the school locked in; the rate itself is never filed.
WHY REVENUE MIX MATTERS
Program revenue = tuition and fees. Contributions = annual fund + capital campaigns + restricted gifts. Investment income = interest, dividends, and realized gains on investments sold, as the 990 reports them (Part I line 10) — not the endowment draw. Other captures auxiliary lines (summer programs, rentals, dining).
A school deriving 90%+ from program revenue is highly sensitive to a tuition shock — a class that fails to fill, an unexpected attrition spike. With a balanced mix (program + contributions + investment), a soft year on tuition does not translate one-for-one into a revenue downturn. Mature boarding schools and established day schools with endowments typically show contribution and investment shares of 5–20% combined; newer schools and smaller day schools sit closer to 95% program revenue.
These four slices are the 990’s top-level revenue lines. The filing itemizes finer detail (tuition vs. auxiliary program fees, government grants vs. private gifts, rental and event income) that would need a deeper Part VIII parse — a planned refinement, not yet shown.
3-YEAR GROWTH (CAGR)
CAGR stands for compound annual growth rate: the steady per-year growth rate that would carry the three-years-ago figure to today’s figure. A 5% revenue CAGR reads as “revenue grew as if by 5% every year for three years” — it smooths out one lumpy year so the trend is readable.
Revenue growing at least as fast as expenses is the relationship worth watching. Expenses compounding faster than revenue is how structural deficits form.
HOW TO READ THREE-YEAR CAGR
CAGR (compound annual growth rate) smooths year-over-year variation by reporting the constant annual rate that would produce the same end-state over the period. The load-bearing relationship to watch is revenue CAGR ≥ expense CAGR. When expenses outpace revenue over three years, the gap between revenue and expenses narrows even if the latest year still shows revenue above expenses.
Net-asset CAGR tracks total net assets, buildings, endowment, and restricted gifts included. A positive figure means net assets grew; a persistently negative one means they shrank.
HOW TO READ TUITION DEPENDENCY AND COMP RATIO
Tuition dependency is the share of total revenue that comes from program service revenue (tuition + fees). NAIS DASL benchmarks place the K-12 day-school median at roughly 85%. Below 70%, the revenue base is diversified beyond tuition (typical of mature boarding schools); above 90%, it is concentrated in tuition — worth asking how an unfilled class or an attrition spike would be absorbed.
Comp ratio is salaries + benefits as a share of total operating expenses. Per ISM benchmarks for independent schools, the typical range is 55–70%. Above 70% can signal salary pressure outpacing revenue growth; below 55% is unusual and may indicate large outsourced contracts or non-comp capital expense in the period.
From this school’s IRS Form 990 Schedule J — a publicly filed federal disclosure. Schedule J reports pay for the calendar year ending within the fiscal year. If you’re the school and this looks wrong, email us.
ABOUT HEAD-OF-SCHOOL COMPENSATION
Head-of-School total compensation is reported on IRS Form 990 Schedule J, columns (B) and (F): base compensation, bonus and incentive compensation, other reportable compensation, deferred compensation, and nontaxable benefits combined. The figure shown here is the total of those columns for the head of school as named on the most recent filing. The title shown alongside the figure is that person’s Schedule J designation — a tax-filing label — not necessarily their functional title at the school.
Schedule J lists only people paid more than $150,000 in total, so it doesn’t show heads paid less. Schedule J reports pay for the calendar year ending within the fiscal year.
Compensation varies widely with school size, region, and association membership. NAIS and ISM publish annual benchmark ranges; CASE tracks fundraising-leadership compensation. The Schedule J value is the most defensible apples-to-apples source because it is the same disclosure every 501(c)(3) school files with the IRS.
COMP COST PER EMPLOYEE
Salaries and benefits divided by the 990’s employee count (W-2s issued during the year, part-time and seasonal staff included), excluding the top earners listed on Schedule J. Includes benefits and payroll taxes; not average pay.
(salaries_benefits − Σ top_comp.total_comp) ÷ (total_employees − count(top_comp))
For FY2025: salaries+benefits $43.4M · 617 employees on the 990 · 7 top-comp rows totaling $3.1M · 610 remaining employees.
The head’s pay gets the headlines; this shows what the school spends on compensation per employee below the top earners. Read it as a cost, not a salary: it includes benefits and payroll taxes and counts every W-2 employee, part-time and seasonal staff included.
This is a cost per employee, not average pay or a faculty median. The 990 doesn’t separate classroom teachers from administrative, athletics, dining, maintenance, or after-school staff, and its employee count mixes full-time with part-time and seasonal staff. The dollars include benefits and payroll taxes, so the figure runs well above pay alone. Schools with outsourced operations (dining, maintenance) will read higher than schools that employ that staff directly. Schedule J reports pay for the calendar year ending within the fiscal year. Salaries and benefits are fiscal-year totals, so the subtraction mixes two slightly different years. A true faculty median requires NAIS DASL. We omit this metric entirely when fewer than six employees remain after the top-comp subtraction.
Salaries and benefits divided by the 990’s employee count (W-2s issued during the year, part-time and seasonal staff included), excluding the top earners listed on Schedule J. Includes benefits and payroll taxes; not average pay.
PEER COMPARISON
SEE THE 30 SCHOOLS IN THE MATCHED PEER GROUP
- Greenwich Country Day SchoolGreenwich, CTVery large
- The Taft SchoolWatertown, CTLarge
- Greenwich AcademyGreenwich, CTLarge
- The Hotchkiss SchoolLakeville, CTLarge
- Greens Farms AcademyGreens Farms, CTLarge
- Greenhill SchoolAddison, TXVery large
- Horace Mann SchoolBronx, NYVery large
- McDonogh SchoolOwings Mills, MDVery large
- Milton AcademyMilton, MAVery large
- Punahou SchoolHonolulu, HIVery large
- Riverdale Country SchoolBronx, NYVery large
- Baylor SchoolChattanooga, TNVery large
- Harvard-Westlake SchoolStudio City, CAVery large
- Poly Prep Country Day SchoolBrooklyn, NYVery large
- Hopkins SchoolNew Haven, CTLarge
- The Harker SchoolSan Jose, CAVery large
- The Lawrenceville SchoolLawrenceville, NJVery large
- The Lovett SchoolAtlanta, GAVery large
- The McCallie SchoolChattanooga, TNVery large
- Crossroads SchoolSanta Monica, CAVery large
- Interlochen Center for the ArtsInterlochen, MIVery large
- Brunswick School IncGreenwich, CT
- The Loomis Chaffee SchoolWindsor, CTLarge
- Northfield Mount Hermon SchoolMount Hermon, MAVery large
- The Blake SchoolHopkins, MNVery large
- Ethical Culture Fieldston SchoolNew York, NYVery large
- Hawken SchoolGates Mills, OHVery large
- The Collegiate SchoolRichmond, VAVery large
- Gulliver Preparatory SchoolPinecrest, FLVery large
- Noble and Greenough SchoolDedham, MAVery large
These are the 30 closest matches by size band, region, shared associations, and revenue scale — the matched peer group every percentile on this panel is computed against. The percentile bars use the peers with data for each metric, so their counts can be slightly smaller. Each link opens the school's own report page.
Among 29 peer schools in HiveCheck’s matched peer group (closest matches by size, location, and associations), Choate Rosemary Hall’s position by metric is below. The gray band shows the peer distribution from the bottom quarter to the top quarter; the tick marks label each quartile position. The purple marker is Choate Rosemary Hall.
HOW WE COMPARE
We compare this school against its peer cohort on this metric and count how many peers it sits above. We never frame this as “top X%” or “bottom X%” because the right reading depends on the metric’s natural direction.
- Revenue minus expenses, net assets ÷ expenses — higher is better.
- Tuition dependency, comp ratio — higher is riskier (more concentration, less flex).
About the peer set. Peers are matched on size cohort (Form 990 revenue + employee band), region, and association overlap. NCES Private School Universe Survey enrollment is shown on the Community Demographics panel for the 1,556 of 1,639covered schools matched to that survey — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What it measures. Revenue minus expenses as a share of revenue, calculated as (revenue − expenses) / revenue on the IRS Form 990. It is not an operating margin: 990 revenue includes gifts for buildings and endowment and realized investment gains, and 990 expenses include depreciation, a non-cash cost.
How to read it. Higher means revenue ran further above expenses on the filing. One year can swing with a capital gift or an investment gain, so read it against the school’s multi-year trend.
HOW WE COMPARE
We compare this school against its peer cohort on this metric and count how many peers it sits above. We never frame this as “top X%” or “bottom X%” because the right reading depends on the metric’s natural direction.
- Revenue minus expenses, net assets ÷ expenses — higher is better.
- Tuition dependency, comp ratio — higher is riskier (more concentration, less flex).
About the peer set. Peers are matched on size cohort (Form 990 revenue + employee band), region, and association overlap. NCES Private School Universe Survey enrollment is shown on the Community Demographics panel for the 1,556 of 1,639covered schools matched to that survey — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What it measures. Share of total revenue that comes from program-service revenue (tuition + fees) on the Form 990. Independent schools without significant endowments often run 85–95% tuition-dependent; schools with strong fundraising or large endowment payouts sit lower.
How to read it. Higher is riskier — concentration means a tuition shock (an unfilled class, an attrition spike) translates directly into a revenue shock. NAIS DASL benchmarks place the K-12 day-school median at roughly 85% tuition-dependent. Below 70%, the revenue base is diversified beyond tuition (typical of mature boarding schools); above 90%, it is concentrated in tuition.
HOW WE COMPARE
We compare this school against its peer cohort on this metric and count how many peers it sits above. We never frame this as “top X%” or “bottom X%” because the right reading depends on the metric’s natural direction.
- Revenue minus expenses, net assets ÷ expenses — higher is better.
- Tuition dependency, comp ratio — higher is riskier (more concentration, less flex).
About the peer set. Peers are matched on size cohort (Form 990 revenue + employee band), region, and association overlap. NCES Private School Universe Survey enrollment is shown on the Community Demographics panel for the 1,556 of 1,639covered schools matched to that survey — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What it measures. Salaries + benefits as a share of total operating expenses (Form 990 Part IX, line totals). Captures how much of the cost base is human capital — the dominant cost structure at every independent school.
How to read it. Higher = leaner room for non-comp investment. ISM’s independent-school benchmarks typically land in the 55–70% range. Above 70% can signal salary pressure outpacing revenue; below 55% is unusual and worth investigating (possible unusual non-comp expense or outsourced staffing).
HOW WE COMPARE
We compare this school against its peer cohort on this metric and count how many peers it sits above. We never frame this as “top X%” or “bottom X%” because the right reading depends on the metric’s natural direction.
- Revenue minus expenses, net assets ÷ expenses — higher is better.
- Tuition dependency, comp ratio — higher is riskier (more concentration, less flex).
About the peer set. Peers are matched on size cohort (Form 990 revenue + employee band), region, and association overlap. NCES Private School Universe Survey enrollment is shown on the Community Demographics panel for the 1,556 of 1,639covered schools matched to that survey — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What it measures. Net assets divided by total annual expenses. Net assets include buildings, land, and restricted endowment, so this is not a measure of money the school could spend. HiveCheck uses total net assets (Form 990 Part X) because the 990 doesn’t separate the spendable part.
How to read it. Higher means more net assets per dollar of expenses. Schools that own large campuses or hold large endowments read high even when little of that is available to spend.
HOW TO READ THE PERCENTILE
A percentile tells you where this school sits in the peer distribution. p30 means the school is at or above 30% of peers on that measure — only 70% of peers are higher. The right reading depends on the metric’s natural direction: for revenue minus expenses and net assets ÷ expenses higher is better; for tuition dependency and comp ratio higher is riskier. The one-line hint under each chart calls out the polarity.
Some metrics show fewer peers than the panel total (n_peers_in_calc) — that happens when peers don’t have an overlapping filing year for that specific ratio. The displayed percentile is computed only against peers that filed in the same window.
About the size cohort. Peer cohort matching uses IRS Form 990 employee count + max-revenue tier — proxies for school size, since the 990 doesn’t carry student counts. Real per-school enrollment from the NCES Private School Universe Survey is shown on the Community Demographics panel for the1,556 of 1,639 covered schools matched to that survey; peer cohort matching still uses the 990 size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria.
The market underneath the school: who lives here, whether they can pay, whether they will give, who they choose instead, and which way the money is moving.
The local paying-capacity score sits in the middle band here, while the local giving-capacity score sits in the bottom band. Paying Capacity reads 47 / 100 and Giving Capacity 15 / 100 for the 06492 area. Worth asking how much of enrollment here rides on financial aid. That giving read is the local philanthropic climate, not this school's donor base — its actual fundraising shows in its own 990 contributions, since gifts come from families, grandparents, and alumni wherever they live.
This is a boarding school, so its families are national; read these local-market signals as context for the campus and its day population, not its full enrollment.
THE MARKET, MAPPED
Figures on this card are for a 45-minute drive from campus.Changes the market figures on this map and everything marked with a purple edge. 45 minutes is the standard HiveCheck market.
Within 45 minutes: about 43,679 school-age children in families who can likely afford tuition, in neighborhoods across 102 ZIP codes; 127 private schools, 18 of them covered by HiveCheck (this one included).
Loading the neighborhood map…
Sources: drive times from openrouteservice on OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors; neighborhoods from the U.S. Census Bureau (ACS 2020–2024, TIGER/Line); private schools from the NCES Private School Universe Survey (2021–22); places from GeoNames; borders from Natural Earth.
COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS
Figures on this card are for a 45-minute drive from campus.About the area: these numbers describe the community around the school — the neighborhoods nearest the school (its ZIP-code area) — a closer-in read than the whole metro. They come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which pools five years of responses for a reliable picture. Cost-of-living and wealth-context signals are layered on from HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and BEA (the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis) where available.
THIS SCHOOL · NCES PSS
The Private School Universe Survey (PSS) is the federal census of U.S. private schools, conducted every two years by NCES with the U.S. Census Bureau collecting responses. The NCES file HiveCheck uses holds about 22,000 private schools. It reports total enrollment, per-grade enrollment, FTE teachers, and basic school identity.
This school’s most recent NCES record: 2021-22. The newest NCES release is the 2021-22 survey (published 2023); NCES has not yet published the 2023-24 survey. When a school is missing from the 2021-22 file, HiveCheck shows its latest earlier count and labels it with that year.
HiveCheck → NCES match for this school: auto exact at 95% confidence (PPIN 00233261). Match was made by joining state + normalized school name + city.
Per-grade bands are summed from the PSS per-grade enrollment columns (Pxxx). When a school has a transitional / postgrad program, the total enrollment may include students not assigned to a standard grade band. PSS is voluntary but achieves > 95% response across the universe.
School-reported: 860 students (boarding+day), on the school’s own website (choate.edu), read September 26, 2026; the page doesn’t say which school year the figure is for.
school-age children live in families who can likely afford tuition, within a ~45-minute drive.
Heads up — this area has two distinct income clusters (roughly $19K–$195K). Your realistic market is concentrated in the higher-income ZIP codes below.
Families come from neighborhoods in 102 ZIP codes — including Bristol, CT, West Haven, CT, and New Haven, CT. Total population is 1,831,765, of whom 276,442 are school-age (5–17).
About 14% of the area’s school-age children are in 5 ZIP codes (Bristol, CT, West Haven, CT, and New Haven, CT).
Counted neighborhood by neighborhood: every Census block group (about 1,500 people) whose exact drive time from the campus is 45 minutes or less.
Each dot is one ZIP code’s neighborhoods within the drive — bigger dots have more school-age children. The school’s home ZIP is filled purple; the vertical purple line marks the typical family income across the whole draw area.
SEE THE 102 ZIP CODES
| ZIP | Community | Typical income | $200K+ | % BA+ | Pop. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06010 | Bristol, CT | $92K | 10.6% | 30.4% | 61,462 |
| 06511 | New Haven, CT | $64K | 9.2% | 49.0% | 56,800 |
| 06516 | West Haven, CT | $83K | 8.1% | 31.9% | 55,351 |
| 06606 | Bridgeport, CT | $80K | 9.1% | 24.7% | 49,322 |
| 06457 | Middletown, CT | $89K | 14.0% | 40.7% | 47,958 |
| 06492 | Wallingford, CT | $115K | 18.7% | 40.2% | 44,362 |
| 06484 | Shelton, CT | $117K | 23.1% | 41.6% | 41,889 |
| 06106 | Hartford, CT | $51K | 3.0% | 17.7% | 38,154 |
| 06460 | Milford, CT | $110K | 20.9% | 48.9% | 37,976 |
| 06513 | New Haven, CT | $68K | 5.5% | 19.9% | 37,876 |
| 06450 | Meriden, CT | $81K | 9.5% | 23.4% | 36,227 |
| 06053 | New Britain, CT | $71K | 7.0% | 26.7% | 35,564 |
| 06614 | Stratford, CT | $120K | 20.6% | 40.2% | 34,919 |
| 06704 | Waterbury, CT | $54K | 3.4% | 13.7% | 34,513 |
| 06489 | Southington, CT | $140K | 25.7% | 45.5% | 32,025 |
| 06770 | Naugatuck, CT | $100K | 12.9% | 32.4% | 31,800 |
| 06111 | Newington, CT | $109K | 16.9% | 39.9% | 30,896 |
| 06604 | Bridgeport, CT | $56K | 4.4% | 25.2% | 30,637 |
| 06512 | New Haven, CT | $92K | 10.3% | 30.0% | 29,712 |
| 06051 | New Britain, CT | $51K | 2.5% | 11.6% | 29,319 |
| 06410 | Cheshire, CT | $151K | 33.0% | 60.8% | 29,040 |
| 06611 | Trumbull, CT | $166K | 38.3% | 60.6% | 29,012 |
| 06708 | Waterbury, CT | $76K | 7.1% | 21.7% | 28,825 |
| 06405 | Branford, CT | $114K | 19.3% | 51.3% | 28,217 |
| 06118 | East Hartford, CT | $85K | 6.5% | 18.4% | 27,470 |
| 06109 | Wethersfield, CT | $138K | 21.9% | 54.9% | 27,250 |
| 06514 | Hamden, CT | $111K | 16.7% | 41.7% | 24,872 |
| 06473 | North Haven, CT | $138K | 26.1% | 47.1% | 24,336 |
| 06451 | Meriden, CT | $79K | 8.0% | 19.3% | 24,318 |
| 06114 | Hartford, CT | $55K | 7.4% | 12.6% | 23,627 |
| 06033 | Glastonbury, CT | $149K | 32.8% | 64.5% | 23,372 |
| 06705 | Waterbury, CT | $59K | 6.2% | 19.5% | 22,509 |
| 06437 | Guilford, CT | $153K | 33.1% | 60.4% | 22,108 |
| 06067 | Rocky Hill, CT | $104K | 18.3% | 45.2% | 20,880 |
| 06610 | Bridgeport, CT | $59K | 5.1% | 15.9% | 20,718 |
| 06518 | Hamden, CT | $119K | 25.4% | 55.7% | 20,623 |
| 06112 | Hartford, CT | $62K | 4.5% | 13.9% | 20,584 |
| 06107 | West Hartford, CT | $181K | 43.3% | 77.7% | 19,676 |
| 06108 | East Hartford, CT | $55K | 3.1% | 14.0% | 19,643 |
| 06105 | Hartford, CT | $59K | 9.2% | 32.0% | 19,521 |
| 06037 | Berlin, CT | $123K | 21.4% | 45.0% | 19,137 |
| 06401 | Ansonia, CT | $87K | 9.3% | 21.6% | 19,033 |
| 06515 | New Haven, CT | $88K | 10.8% | 42.4% | 18,950 |
| 06443 | Madison, CT | $166K | 41.2% | 72.4% | 17,616 |
| 06062 | Plainville, CT | $93K | 11.4% | 30.1% | 17,551 |
| 06483 | Seymour, CT | $117K | 20.3% | 34.0% | 16,889 |
| 06706 | Waterbury, CT | $58K | 5.6% | 15.8% | 16,521 |
| 06615 | Stratford, CT | $77K | 9.1% | 28.0% | 16,077 |
| 06120 | Hartford, CT | $36K | 0.9% | 8.2% | 15,940 |
| 06119 | West Hartford, CT | $122K | 19.8% | 67.4% | 15,738 |
| 06517 | Hamden, CT | $113K | 21.0% | 56.2% | 15,550 |
| 06032 | Farmington, CT | $150K | 32.9% | 72.0% | 15,446 |
| 06519 | New Haven, CT | $56K | 4.1% | 19.5% | 14,723 |
| 06461 | Milford, CT | $136K | 28.5% | 55.5% | 14,708 |
| 06416 | Cromwell, CT | $118K | 19.1% | 48.7% | 14,334 |
| 06716 | Wolcott, CT | $118K | 18.9% | 39.3% | 14,325 |
| 06477 | Orange, CT | $152K | 31.7% | 59.3% | 14,315 |
| 06040 | Manchester, CT | $85K | 8.6% | 37.1% | 13,792 |
| 06110 | West Hartford, CT | $91K | 12.0% | 41.2% | 12,625 |
| 06418 | Derby, CT | $82K | 7.8% | 35.9% | 12,487 |
| 06605 | Bridgeport, CT | $52K | 0.0% | 10.9% | 11,902 |
| 06117 | West Hartford, CT | $162K | 40.2% | 73.9% | 11,420 |
| 06608 | Bridgeport, CT | $61K | 2.5% | 10.6% | 11,198 |
| 06479 | Plantsville, CT | $125K | 24.1% | 40.4% | 11,191 |
| 06424 | East Hampton, CT | $117K | 18.7% | 37.7% | 9,966 |
| 06712 | Prospect, CT | $127K | 21.1% | 40.8% | 9,458 |
| 06480 | Portland, CT | $114K | 22.6% | 51.9% | 9,434 |
| 06052 | New Britain, CT | $85K | 10.3% | 30.2% | 9,340 |
| 06525 | New Haven, CT | $195K | 48.5% | 72.1% | 9,073 |
| 06413 | Clinton, CT | $120K | 16.9% | 40.6% | 8,941 |
| 06779 | Oakville, CT | $101K | 11.8% | 31.2% | 8,458 |
| 06710 | Waterbury, CT | $71K | 3.8% | 16.7% | 8,279 |
| 06786 | Terryville, CT | $85K | 11.5% | 26.9% | 7,994 |
| 06422 | Durham, CT | $145K | 30.7% | 48.0% | 7,208 |
| 06471 | North Branford, CT | $108K | 17.7% | 30.1% | 7,041 |
| 06042 | Manchester, CT | $102K | 10.7% | 60.9% | 6,485 |
| 06762 | Middlebury, CT | $136K | 22.5% | 53.1% | 6,306 |
| 06403 | Beacon Falls, CT | $106K | 24.9% | 45.3% | 6,147 |
| 06607 | Bridgeport, CT | $57K | 7.8% | 6.3% | 5,839 |
| 06441 | Higganum, CT | $121K | 21.0% | 47.7% | 5,767 |
| 06478 | Oxford, CT | $159K | 35.2% | 43.3% | 5,722 |
| 06472 | Northford, CT | $113K | 24.2% | 37.0% | 5,497 |
| 06524 | Bethany, CT | $164K | 37.5% | 59.2% | 5,288 |
| 06825 | Fairfield, CT | $193K | 44.7% | 73.5% | 5,095 |
| 06468 | Monroe, CT | $167K | 33.8% | 59.8% | 4,307 |
| 06419 | Killingworth, CT | $120K | 24.5% | 58.5% | 4,304 |
| 06455 | Middlefield, CT | $98K | 23.0% | 41.6% | 4,243 |
| 06702 | Waterbury, CT | $19K | 0.0% | 10.9% | 4,222 |
| 06510 | New Haven, CT | $59K | 8.6% | 68.9% | 4,094 |
| 06795 | Watertown, CT | $139K | 17.0% | 45.1% | 3,997 |
| 06103 | Hartford, CT | $67K | 6.0% | 65.2% | 3,301 |
| 06412 | Chester, CT | $105K | 23.0% | 45.0% | 3,042 |
| 06095 | Windsor, CT | $66K | 5.7% | 17.4% | 2,852 |
| 06085 | Unionville, CT | $144K | 28.8% | 65.6% | 2,602 |
| 06073 | South Glastonbury, CT | $176K | 44.9% | 77.1% | 2,569 |
| 06002 | Bloomfield, CT | $71K | 11.5% | 15.8% | 2,384 |
| 06001 | Avon, CT | $113K | 31.2% | 81.8% | 2,254 |
| 06013 | Burlington, CT | $114K | 21.7% | 40.2% | 1,548 |
| 06023 | East Berlin, CT | $101K | 14.9% | 49.5% | 1,224 |
| 06417 | Deep River, CT | $70K | 8.8% | 36.2% | 1,181 |
| 06438 | Haddam, CT | $121K | 13.3% | 39.9% | 885 |
| 06444 | Marion, CT | $108K | 14.7% | 28.7% | 587 |
HOW TO READ THESE DEMOGRAPHIC SIGNALS
The Census Bureau’s community survey pools five years of responses to produce the most statistically reliable picture of a community around the school. Vintage 2020-2024 means the pooled survey period. This is the school's ZIP-code area, a far sharper read of the immediate draw area than a whole-metro average.
Population sizes the catchment universe. Median HH income is reported per household, not per individual — the standard wealth signal. Bachelor’s or higher is a strong proxy for the independent-school candidate pool: education-completion patterns correlate tightly with private-school enrollment in U.S. metros.
Households with kids <18 and school-aged (5–17) size the K-12 market specifically. Households $200K+ is the tuition-affordability ceiling proxy — independent-school tuitions for upper grades typically require household income at or above this band.
WHY COST OF LIVING MATTERS HERE
Cost-of-living context is a second-order signal for the independent-school market. Higher housing costs tend to concentrate wealth (and willingness-to-pay) in the metro; they also raise the salary floor a school must hit to retain faculty. Median home value is the typical ownership signal; Fair Market Rent is the federal benchmark used to set Section 8 vouchers and is a defensible cross-metro comparison for housing pressure.
Can families here afford tuition?
Figures on this card are for a 45-minute drive from campus.The typical family within a 45-minute drive earns $98,972. At about $74,983 in net program revenue per student, that’s 76% of that income — A major share of income.
How this verdict is set
The verdict is a plain read on tuition affordability at the catchment level, computed as net program revenue per student (usually after financial aid) divided by the typical household income in the school’s 45-minute drive-time draw area.
- Low relative to incomes — the per-student figure is 15% or less of the typical household income.
- A sizable share of income — the per-student figure is between 15% and 30% of the typical household income.
- A major share of income — the per-student figure exceeds 30% of the typical household income.
Net program revenue per student is the school’s IRS 990 program-service revenue divided by enrollment — a rough estimate of the average price after aid, not the sticker price, and it can include camps or room and board. Typical income is the population-weighted median household income across the Census neighborhoods (block groups) within a 45-minute drive of the school, from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
This is a draw-area read, not a household-level guarantee. Real paying families are drawn from the higher-income tail of the distribution; the median is the anchor, not the enrolled family. The per-student figure is a 990-derived estimate that trails the current year and may not reflect a recent tuition change.
~43,700 school-age children live in families who can likely afford you — the addressable pool. See Community Demographics for how that pool is distributed across the draw area.
Net program revenue per student exceeds 30% of the typical household's income here; for the 15.5% of local households earning $200K+ it is at most about 37% of income. Worth asking what share of enrollment is full-pay versus aided.
The per-student figure is Form 990 program revenue divided by enrollment, usually net of aid and sometimes including camps or room and board; income is a population-weighted draw-area estimate (U.S. Census ACS); this is a draw-area read, not a household-level guarantee. It reads parent affordability in the draw area — geography does not measure the school’s fundraising, which comes from its own families, grandparents, and alumni.
GIVING PROFILE
HOW WE READ GIVING
Every number in this profile comes from this school’s own IRS Form 990 filings — nothing from outside data.
Four signals build the read. TREND compares the average of the earliest half of the school’s non-PPP years to the latest half, so one big gift can’t drive the direction. CONSISTENCY reads year-to-year swings against the typical year — a broad donor base moves less than reliance on a few large relationships. SHARE OF REVENUE is gifts as a share of total revenue. NET ASSETS VS. EXPENSES reads total net assets against a year of expenses (buildings and restricted gifts included, so not cash); we never publish a back-calculated endowment dollar.
PPP years (FY2021 and FY2022) stay on the bar, greyed and tagged, but are excluded from every calculation — many independent schools booked PPP loans on the contributions line. Amended returns are collapsed to the latest filing for each tax year, so the same year never counts twice.
What the 990 can’t tell you: donor concentration (Schedule B is redacted on public filings, so the year-to-year swings above are the honest proxy), government-grant share (folded into the contributions line), and cost per dollar raised (fundraising expense is reported too inconsistently to trust). Named as gaps, not filled with guesses.
Contributed revenue is steady. Gifts and grants have held in a narrow band around $33.8M — about 33% of revenue — for several years, neither rising nor falling.
What would it take to move giving off its plateau — is there an untapped major-gift or planned-giving base?
Gifts run about 33% of revenue. Most recent filing (FY2025): $31.2M.
FY2021–22 shown lighter — PPP loans inflated contributions those years, so they’re left out of the trend, consistency, and share-of-revenue math.
Figures are nominal. Consumer prices rose about 28% from FY2018 to FY2025, so flat giving is a real-terms decline.
TREND · 6-YEAR
The direction of contributions and grants (IRS Form 990 Part VIII line 1h) over the school’s non-PPP filings. We average the earliest half of the years and compare that to the latest half — so one big year at either end can’t drive the read on its own.
Bands with four or more usable years: a change of at least +20% reads RISING, at least -20% reads DECLINING, anything between reads STEADY. With only three usable years we hold to a stricter ±30% gate on the verdict and label the cell “direction only” so it can’t disagree with the verdict.
What would move it: a capital campaign, a lapsed lead donor, a Head-led development push. Caveat: the 990 folds annual fund and campaign gifts into one line, so we can’t split them here.
Contributions held roughly steady — $35.7M (FY2018-2020) vs $31.9M (FY2023-2025).
CONSISTENCY
How steadily contributions come in year to year — we measure how far each non-PPP year swings from the school’s typical one (a coefficient of variation).
Bands with four or more usable years: swings under 30% of the typical year read STEADY, 30-60% read VARIABLE, above 60% read VOLATILE. A single year more than three times the typical one, landing in the latest two years, is a spike override to VARIABLE.
Not scored when the average giving base runs under $10k, or when a year is negative (a refund or restatement). Caveat: this is the honest proxy for donor concentration — Schedule B is redacted on public 990s, so we’re reading the pattern, not the roster.
Year-to-year gifts stay in a narrow band, which is consistent with a broad donor base — though public 990s redact donor counts (Schedule B), so we’re inferring from the pattern, not the roster.
SHARE OF REVENUE
Gifts and grants as a share of total revenue, averaged over the non-PPP years — how much of total revenue gifts actually carry, versus tuition-only economics.
Bands: under 5% reads SMALL SHARE (the school runs largely on tuition). Between 5% and 10% reads TYPICAL SHARE for a day school. Above 10% reads MAJOR SHARE — a defining piece of the revenue mix.
Not scored with fewer than three non-PPP filings, or when the school doesn’t break out total revenue on its 990. What it can’t see: whether that share is annual fund, capital campaign, or grant.
Gifts run about 33% of revenue — a defining piece of the revenue mix.
NET ASSETS VS. EXPENSES
The school’s total net assets against a year of expenses (net assets ÷ total expenses), from the same 990 filings. Net assets include buildings, land, endowment, and other restricted gifts, so this is not cash or money the school could spend. We never publish a back-calculated endowment dollar — that estimate is unreliable.
Bands: under 0.5 years, 0.5 to 1, 1 to 2, and over 2 years of expenses.
When the net-assets ratio isn’t on file we fall back to investment income: a median under about $25k/year reads LOW INVESTMENT INCOME; more than that reads INVESTMENT INCOME, without sizing the endowment. Not scored with fewer than three non-PPP filings.
Net assets exceed two years of expenses (the over-2x band), buildings and restricted gifts included.
Net assets include buildings, land, and restricted gifts, which aren’t spendable, so the net-assets read is not a measure of cash. We don’t back-calculate an endowment dollar figure from investment income; that estimate is unreliable.
No standout higher-capacity ZIP codes within 45 minutes — a note on how local wealth is distributed, not a limit on this school’s fundraising, which runs on its own families, grandparents, and alumni wherever they live.
The contribution bars above include government grants in FY2024 ($6.9M) — Form 990 Part VIII line 1e, where PPP-era relief lands. The trend math already excludes the PPP years; the private-gift line (1f, $31.2M in the latest year) is the number a private-giving read rests on.
Three things public 990s don’t disclose, so we don’t guess:
- Donor concentration. Schedule B (top donors) is redacted on public filings, so we can’t show whether one or two families drive the total. The year-to-year swings above are the closest available proxy.
- Government-grant share. The 990 folds grants into the contributions line with no clean sub-total, so PPP years in particular inflate the raw figure. FY2021 and FY2022 are excluded from every calculation above.
- Cost per dollar raised. Fundraising expense is reported so inconsistently on school 990s (many report zero) that the ratio would mislead — so we don’t show it.
HOW TO READ THIS
Every number here comes from this school’s own IRS Form 990. The bar shows contributions and grants (Part VIII line 1h) as reported, year by year. The trend, consistency, share-of-revenue, and net-assets reads are all computed from those same filings. Nothing here comes from outside data about the surrounding area.
Four signals build the read. TREND compares the average of the earliest half of the years to the average of the latest half, so one big year can’t drive the direction. CONSISTENCY reads year-to-year swings — steadier series are consistent with a broader donor base, though Schedule B redaction means this is a pattern read, not a roster. SHARE OF REVENUE compares gifts to total revenue — how much of total revenue gifts actually carry vs. tuition-only economics. NET ASSETS VS. EXPENSES reads total net assets against a year of expenses, with investment income as the fallback; net assets include buildings and restricted gifts, so it is not a measure of spendable reserves.
PPP years (FY2021, FY2022) are excluded from every calculation. Many independent schools booked PPP loans as contributions on the 990, so those two years overstate real giving. They still show on the bar, greyed and tagged “PPP,” so nothing is hidden.
The verdict is a direction, not a rating. RISING, STEADY, DECLINING, VARIABLE — a plain read of how the school’s own giving history has moved. A “worth asking in diligence” prompt sits underneath because the 990 tells you the shape, not the story behind it.
Three things the 990 can’t tell you. Donor concentration (Schedule B is redacted on public filings). Government-grant share (folded into the contributions line, no clean sub-total). Cost per dollar raised (fundraising expense is reported too inconsistently to trust). Named as gaps rather than filled with guesses.
COMPETITIVE POSITION
Figures on this card are for a 45-minute drive from campus.State K-12 private-school-choice policy is changing on a legislative-session cadence; this entry was verified in mid-2026 and is shown as market context, not enrollment advice, and not a statement that this school participates or that any given family will qualify. Verify current program status, eligibility, and award amount with the state administrator before relying on it.
HOW WE READ COMPETITION
Market fill is a single unduplicated ratio: total private-school enrollment inside the school’s 45-minute drive-time catchment ÷ school-age children in $200k+ households in that catchment. Bands: under 0.5 reads OPEN FIELD, 0.5-0.85 reads BALANCED, 0.85-1.1 reads CROWDED, 1.1 or above reads SEATS EXCEED THE POOL (private capacity larger than the affording pool).
The by-band chart is a relative-pressure read: each band’s private capacity is rescaled by that band’s share of school-age children (elementary 6/13, middle 3/13, high 4/13) so a K-12 school isn’t double-counted against a slice of the pool. Bars and hero sit on the same seats-per-affording-child scale.
Thin-market guard: when the affording pool inside the drive is under about 1,000 children we don’t call a verdict — the ratios get too noisy in isolated markets.
Sources: private-school counts come from the NCES Private School Universe Survey (biennial, currently the 2021-22 vintage); public and charter counts from the NCES Common Core of Data via the Urban Institute Education Data Portal; the affording pool from the U.S. Census ACS $200k+ bracket; drive-time areas from OpenStreetMap via openrouteservice.
What we can’t see: each competitor’s tuition, selectivity, or waitlist; the actual choice set a family weighs; the school’s own realized yield. A precise concentration score (HHI) waits on the PSS enrollment-history backfill.
An open field. About 127 private schools sit within a 45-minute drive, and private seats fill only 44% of the pool of affording children.
With room in the market, what's kept enrollment from capturing more of it — awareness, price, or program?
Relative pressure = per-band capacity of the schools that serve this band, divided by the same-band slice of the 45-minute affording pool. Above 1.0, that share of local capacity already exceeds its slice of the affording pool. Bands read on the same seats-per-affording-child scale as the market-wide fill above, so a school can sit in a "balanced" market while one band runs tighter than the others.
Overall market fill (unduplicated): about 44% of the pool of affording children sits in a private seat.
- All private schools:
- every school within the drive in the federal NCES Private School Universe Survey (about 22,000 schools in the NCES file HiveCheck uses): independent, religious, Montessori, special-education and others.
- Schools HiveCheck covers:
- the 1,639 independent schools in HiveCheck’s coverage, nonprofits that file their own IRS Form 990 (about 70% are NAIS members), included because their filings are public, not by membership. They are a subset of all private schools. Many religious schools, including most Catholic parish and diocesan schools, don’t file their own 990, so they count among all private schools but aren’t in HiveCheck’s coverage.
Private seats fill about 44% of the pool of affording children across the catchment — this school serves high.
127 private schools, about 19,226 seats, 60 nonsectarian, within 45 minutes.
Whether that count is rising or falling needs the biennial PSS backfill.
No single school dominates 127 players — a fragmented market. About 47% are nonsectarian.
A precise concentration score (HHI) needs per-school enrollment history.
The county runs 230 public schools enrolling 116,181 students, including 7 charters — the free alternative families weigh.County figures here cover only the school’s home county — the school’s 45-minute draw area can span several counties, so county-grain signals describe the core of the market, not all of it.
Its enrollment trend (the demand mirror) needs the annual CCD backfill.
Each competitor’s tuition, selectivity, or waitlist; the actual choice set a given family weighs; the school’s own realized yield against these rivals. PSS is biennial and released on a ~2-year lag — read direction over precision.
- Private-seat saturation of the affording pool — how full the market already is, by grade band.
- Competitive density and its trend — whether the field is thickening or thinning (entries vs closures).
- Market concentration and the same-format competitor set — raw counts overstate the threat.
- Public and charter free capacity — the alternative that anchors the demand mirror.
BY THE NUMBERS · PUBLIC & PRIVATE COUNTS
Across the whole 45-minute market, 127 private schools enroll about 19,226 students in total, against the 43,679 school-age children in families who can likely afford tuition. Private enrollment fills only 44% of the affording pool.
18 schools HiveCheck covers (this one included) are in this market, enrolling about 4,236 K–12 students — 10 per 100 affording children, against 44 for all private schools. 1 of them has no NCES enrollment count, so its seats aren’t included.
Total enrollment summed across every distinct private school in the catchment, each counted once (NCES PSS); the by-band count above overlaps (a K–12 school appears in all three bands), so it exceeds the 127 distinct schools here. Affording pool is a conservative $200K+ proxy, so a ratio near 1 signals a market that also serves families below that line. Seats are K–12 in both counts (affording children are ages 5–17); HiveCheck-school seats use each school’s latest NCES count.
The most-saturated grade band here is middle-school — private seats about match the pool of affording children.
Estimated net revenue per student: $74,983 — about 76% of the draw area's $98,972 median household income. IRS 990 program revenue ÷ enrollment; net of financial aid, not list tuition.
How this market estimate is built
Affording children estimates school-age (5–17) residents in households earning $200K+ within a 45-minute drive of the school, summed neighborhood by neighborhood over every Census block group whose exact drive time from the campus is 45 minutes or less. Competing private schools counts every school in the NCES Private School Universe Survey within that same 45-minute drive, each by its exact drive time, by grade band; a K–12 school counts in every band it serves. The $200K cutoff is the available ACS bracket and is a conservative affordability proxy — many independent-school families earn less and pay with aid — so read the figure as a relative market signal across schools, not an exact addressable count. The biennial PSS vintage is a v1 limitation.
What does public K-12 enrollment tell you?
This is the count of students enrolled in public K-12 schools in the county, from the NCES Common Core of Data via the Urban Institute Education Data Portal. It sizes the public-school pool that families weigh against an independent option.
This is a county aggregate, not a measurement of any single public school, and not a rating of any school. HiveCheck does not rate individual schools. Use it to read the scale and structure of the public-school market, not to compare named schools.
NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), via Education Data Portal, Urban Institute, under ODC Attribution License.
This county runs a more fragmented public market: about 230 public schools serving roughly 116,181 students, an average near 505 per school. 7 of those are charter schools, a public alternative open to the same families an independent school enrolls from.
A note on quality signals
Any public-school signal HiveCheck shows here is a county-level aggregate, not a rating of any individual school. HiveCheck does not rate schools. Where we report a coarse signal (school counts, public enrollment), read it as the shape of the competitive market, not a quality judgment on a named campus.
NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), via Education Data Portal, Urban Institute, under ODC Attribution License.
HOW TO USE THE COMPETITIVE SIGNAL
The NCES Common Core of Data is the federal census of U.S. public schools, sourced here through the Urban Institute Education Data Portal. The signal is market scale and structure: how many K-12 students sit in the public-school pipeline in this county, and how consolidated (few schools, large enrollment) or fragmented (many schools, smaller enrollment) that market is.
A county with a large, consolidated public system behaves very differently from one with many smaller schools and charter alternatives. An independent school reads this to understand switching dynamics and how much of the local market is already committed to a public option.
Every figure here is a county aggregate, not a school-level rating. NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), via Education Data Portal, Urban Institute, under ODC Attribution License.
TUITION & ENROLLMENT TRAJECTORY
HOW WE READ THIS TRAJECTORY
The trajectory is anchored on the school’s own IRS Form 990 tuition-and-fees line (Part VIII line 2) in nominal dollars, year by year — a figure that reflects enrollment, tuition price, financial aid, and other program fees together. We average the earliest half of the years and compare to the latest half. Bands: growth of at least +20% reads RISING, +5% to +20% reads HOLDING (roughly pacing inflation), -5% to +5% reads FLAT IN DOLLARS — A REAL-TERMS DECLINE, below -5% reads DECLINING. When year-to-year swings dominate (a coefficient of variation of 20% or more, four-plus years) the read is SWINGING instead of a direction.
RESILIENCE is the honest stand-in for retention — we can’t see the admissions system, so we read how tightly the tuition-revenue series holds together. PRICING compares 990-derived net revenue per student to local median household income, with bands at 15% and 30%. BIRTHS PIPELINE reads county live births, a ~5-year leading indicator: +5% or higher is a tailwind, -5% to -15% a headwind, below -15% a cliff.
What this profile can’t see: retention, the admissions funnel (inquiries → applications → yield), waitlist depth, summer melt, and whether the trajectory is price or headcount. The 990 shows enrollment, tuition price, financial aid, and other program fees combined, not each one apart.
Births-series notes: 2020 is absent — the Census skipped that vintage. When a county’s series ends more than two years ago we don’t call a pipeline (Connecticut’s counties were redrawn in 2022, so most CT schools sit on legacy FIPS with no post-2019 rows).
Tuition & fees revenue is holding its ground — around $60.5M a year, up about 25% over FY2018–FY2025 in nominal dollars, roughly flat once inflation is netted out.
Is enrollment holding while tuition rises, or is headcount slipping under a higher sticker price? The 990 can't separate the two.
Program-service revenue (IRS 990 Part VIII line 2) — tuition & fees, which PPP loans never touched, so every year counts. This reflects enrollment, tuition price, financial aid, and other program fees; the 990 can’t separate them.
Figures are nominal. Consumer prices rose about 28% from FY2018 to FY2025, so flat tuition revenue is a real-terms decline.
Ran about $52.6M a year early on (FY2018–FY2021) versus $60.5M lately (FY2022–FY2025) — the base held its shape across the window.
Year-to-year moves widen a bit, and grew straight through 2020–21. It’s the closest read we have on retention, which lives only in the school’s admissions system.
Net revenue runs about $75K per student — roughly 76% of the area’s $99K median household income, against 43,679 school-age children in $200k+ households within the drive.
County births ran about 8,974 a year in 2011–2016 and about 8,506 in 2018–2024 (-5%) — the pool that reaches kindergarten in ~5 years is shrinking.
County figures here cover only the school’s home county — the school’s 45-minute draw area can span several counties, so county-grain signals describe the core of the market, not all of it.
Births are the earliest pipeline signal — this year's births are the kindergarten-age pool in about five years. Bands: +5% or more reads Tailwind, -5% to -15% Headwind, below -15% Cliff.
Retention and re-enrollment (the sector’s single most-watched enrollment metric), the admissions funnel (inquiries → applications → yield) and summer melt, waitlist depth, and whether the trajectory above is price or headcount — all live only in the school’s own admissions system. Named as gaps, not filled with guesses.
- Enrollment trajectory. Direction first, magnitude second, volatility third — the headline every trustee wants to see.
- Retention / re-enrollment. The leading indicator of school health. Lives in the SIS, so the resilience read above is the honest stand-in.
- Net program revenue per student vs. local income. The affordability squeeze — a rising ratio narrows the addressable pool.
- County births and the affording pool. The ~5-year leading indicators for the kindergarten-age pipeline and paying capacity.
AID & TUITION LINES (990)
Reported financial aid is Part IX line 2, grants to domestic individuals — for a school, overwhelmingly financial aid. Schools that report tuition net of aid show no line at all, so a missing figure is a reporting convention, not zero aid.
Itemized tuition is the Part VIII program line the school itself describes as tuition; the trajectory chart above uses TOTAL program revenue (tuition plus summer, auxiliary, and other program fees), so the itemized line is the cleaner tuition read, though it still mixes enrollment, price, and (where it is netted out) financial aid. The approximate aid share divides aid by tuition plus aid; treat it as directional, not an audited discount rate.
BY THE NUMBERS · AID, TUITION, MIGRATION & HOME PRICES
FHFA House Price Index over available quarters for ZIP3 064.
Home prices are still rising while affluent households are leaving on net — the two series point in different directions. Worth asking what is carrying local appreciation.
What does net migration tell you?
Net migration is the inflow minus the outflow of tax returns for the county, read as a proxy for households moving in or out. A positive number means more affluent households arrived than left; a negative number is the reverse. The sign carries the meaning.
HiveCheck reads the upper adjusted-gross-income brackets of the IRS Statistics of Income county-to-county migration file, so the signal weights toward the households a school recruits and cultivates.
IRS SOI migration is released on roughly a two-year lag and is reported at the county level. Post-pandemic flows are noisier than historical norms, so read direction over precision.
What does the home-price trend tell you?
The FHFA House Price Index tracks repeat sales of the same homes over time, so it reads price direction cleanly without being skewed by the mix of what sold. HiveCheck reports the trailing three-year percent change and a one-word direction (rising, flat, or cooling) as a wealth-direction proxy.
Home-price data is published at the 3-digit ZIP / metro level, a broader area than the rest of this section, which works at the ZIP5 or county grain. Read it as regional context, not a block-level read.
HiveCheck uses FHFA because it is U.S. federal public-domain data with a clean repeat-sales method, rather than a proprietary consumer index with restrictive licensing.
Five questions to ask the search committee
Generated from anomalies in this school's public IRS Form 990 filings. Most questions are anchored to a specific number so you can defend asking them. The point is not to interrogate — it is to show the board you have read the school carefully.
Contributions and investment income are a real part of the revenue mix, about 31% and 3% respectively on the latest 990. Who are the school's most strategic donors and partners right now, and what's the alumni engagement story?
TRIGGERED BY: CONTRIBUTIONS 31% + INVESTMENT INCOME 3% OF REVENUE
Net assets equal roughly 7.9 years of expenses, campus and endowment included. What's the board's framework for when and how the school spends from its endowment and other unrestricted funds versus protects them?
TRIGGERED BY: NET ASSETS ÷ EXPENSES = 7.9 YEARS
Salaries and benefits run about 41% of expenses, lower than most independent-school peers. What does the non-comp side of the budget cover, and how are you thinking about faculty competitiveness against that backdrop?
TRIGGERED BY: SALARIES + BENEFITS / TOTAL EXPENSES = 41%
Your public filings show expenses growing faster than revenue over the last three years. How is the board thinking about the long-term operating model: a deliberate investment phase, or a trend you're working to bend?
TRIGGERED BY: EXPENSE CAGR 6.7% VS REVENUE CAGR -0.7% (3-YEAR)
Given the financial picture in recent filings, has the board engaged outside consulting support (strategic, financial, or operational) and what work has come out of that?
TRIGGERED BY: EXPENSES ABOVE REVENUE OR NET ASSETS FALLING
These are starting points, not a script. The strongest version of any question becomes specific once you walk the campus and meet the team.
Two optional tools for reading these compensation figures: Cost of living restates each figure in another area’s prices — pick where you live and see what the same pay is worth there. Inflation projection rolls each figure forward from its filing year into today’s (and next year’s) dollars. Both are estimates layered on top of the as-filed numbers; the originals never change.
Roles and compensation as filed on the public IRS Form 990 Schedule J. Schedule J reports pay for the calendar year ending within the fiscal year. Individual names are withheld.
Board of trustees (IRS Form 990, Part VII)
Compiled by HiveCheck, a Lomuscio Labs product, on October 18, 2026 from public datasets — IRS Form 990 (through FY2025), U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Education NCES, BEA, and HUD. Data was last refreshed 2026-08-31.
Community & Market section sources: Source: IRS Statistics of Income. NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), via Education Data Portal, Urban Institute, under ODC Attribution License. Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency, House Price Index. Drive times: map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routing by openrouteservice.
Prepared with HiveCheck · hivecheck.ai · Source: IRS Form 990 filings, NCES, U.S. Census Bureau. Shared under the HiveCheck license; attribution must remain intact.