Punahou School
Honolulu, HI·Independent K-12·NAIS member·1,993 employees on the 990
Punahou School is growing into its scale: revenue is up 8.8% per year over three years, against -4.4% expense growth. Tuition is 82% of revenue, so the growth is mostly enrollment- and rate-driven. Reserves cover 4.3 years of operations. The board conversation here is about cost discipline keeping pace with the top line.
On current trajectory, Punahou School is widening its operating cushion: revenue has grown 8.8% per year against -4.4% expense growth, a 13.2-point gap in the school's favor over three years. Latest operating margin is 7.3%. If the gap holds, the cushion keeps growing rather than draining; the strategic question shifts from sustainability to where to invest next.
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.
Punahou School operates a hybrid model — a day-school program with a residential boarding component. The financials below reflect both populations combined. When reading reserve coverage and tuition dependency, weight toward the day-school frame (5-12 months reserves, 80-90% tuition-dependent is healthy) but allow for the boarding-driven capex and higher revenue-per-student tail.
FINANCIAL HEALTH
COMPOSITE FINANCIAL INDEX · NACUBO
The Composite Financial Index is a single 0–10 score from NACUBO Strategic Financial Analysis that synthesizes four nonprofit-finance ratios into one number. College and independent-school CFOs use it as a single read on whether an institution is financially strong, holding steady, or running thin.
- Primary Reserve Ratio (35% weight) — net assets / total expenses. How many months of expenses are in reserve?
- Net Operating Revenues Ratio (35%) — surplus / revenue. Is the school running a surplus?
- Return on Net Assets (20%) — change in net assets / prior net assets. Are the reserves growing?
- Viability Ratio (10%) — net assets / total liabilities. Could the school cover its debts?
- 5+ — strong financial position; resources available to invest in the mission.
- 3 to 5 — adequate; monitor for trend changes.
- 1 to 3 — watch; re-engineering may be needed.
- 0 to 1 — distressed; immediate intervention needed.
- Below 0 — severely distressed.
A candidate looking at a school's CFI gets a single read on whether the institution is investing in mission, holding steady, or running thin. It's the difference between “this school has a $30M endowment” — impressive-sounding on its own — and “this school's reserves are eroding 8% per year” for that same school under stress.
HiveCheck uses net assets at year-end in place of expendable net assets (Schedule D Part V), and total liabilities in place of long-term debt. Both are conservative proxies dictated by what is parsable from the public Form 990. A real CFI computed from audited financials may read slightly different — typically modestly higher reserve coverage and modestly lower viability than what we show.
Strong — 7.4 on a 0-to-10 scale where 5 already counts as strong. So 7.4 isn't a near-miss of a perfect 10 — it's well above the bar, deep in the strong band. Think of it as a financial-health checkup with four vital signs: whether the school spends less than it brings in, whether it keeps enough months of reserves on hand, whether those reserves are growing, and whether it can cover what it owes. Strong financial position. Resources to invest in the mission.
Financials through FY2023 · 6 yrs on file
FY2023 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.
Punahou School reported $157.4M in revenue against $145.9M in expenses in fiscal year 2023, an operating margin of 7.3%.
Verify any number in this report against the source IRS Form 990 look up on irs.gov ↗.
HOW TO READ REVENUE, NET ASSETS, AND OPERATING MARGIN
Revenue is the total income reported on Form 990 for the fiscal year — tuition, fees, contributions, investment income, and other revenue lines combined. Net assets is revenue minus expenses across the school’s full history, measured at year-end (Form 990 Part X, line 32B). It is the closest v1 proxy for “institutional reserves” — see the methodology note on the Composite Financial Index below for why we use total net assets rather than expendable net assets isolated.
Operating margin is (revenue − expenses) / revenue. For nonprofit K-12 independent schools, sustained operating margins of 3–8% are the healthy range — enough surplus to reinvest in plant, financial aid, and reserves without sustained drawdown. Persistent negative margin signals reserve drawdown and warrants scrutiny of multi-year trend.
RESERVE CUSHION
Reserve cushion answers a single question: if every tuition check and donation stopped tomorrow, how long could the school’s savings keep the bills paid? We compute it as net assets at year-end ÷ monthly operating expense, drawn from IRS Form 990 Part X.
- Below 3 months — precarious; one bad admissions cycle can force cuts.
- 3 to 6 months — minimum healthy floor.
- 6 to 12 months — adequate cushion.
- 12 to 24 months — healthy reserve position.
- 24+ months — deep institutional balance.
We use total net assets as a proxy for expendable reserves. A school’s audited financials separate expendable from restricted net assets; the 990 does not break this out. This proxy slightly overstates true operating runway for endowment-heavy schools where much of the net asset base is donor-restricted.
If every tuition check and donation stopped tomorrow, the school’s savings could cover its bills for about 4.3 years (51 months) before running out — a deep cushion. Most schools have under a year. (Savings here is total net assets; it’s a high-side proxy, since some of that is tied up in buildings and restricted gifts.)
VIABILITY
Viability is net assets ÷ total liabilities — the cushion an institution holds against everything it owes. It answers: if all debts came due, how many times over could the school cover them from accumulated net assets?
- Below 1.0x — liabilities exceed net assets; balance-sheet stress.
- 1.0x to 1.25x — thin; monitor.
- 1.25x+ — NACUBO's healthy threshold.
- 3.0x+ — deep institutional cushion.
We use total liabilities from Form 990 Part X rather than long-term debt isolated (a Schedule D Part X detail we do not yet parse). This proxy understates viability for schools carrying meaningful short-term debt or current-year obligations against payables, since both are pulled into the denominator.
HOW TO READ RESERVE COVERAGE AND VIABILITY
Reserve coverage answers “how many months of operating expense are sitting on the balance sheet right now?” We compute it as net assets / monthly expense. NACUBO’s Primary Reserve Ratio targets at least 3–6 months as a minimum healthy floor; 12+ months is considered strong, and 24+ months indicates a deep institutional balance. Below 3 months is precarious.
Viability is net assets per dollar of total liabilities — the cushion against debt obligations. Above 1.25x is considered healthy by NACUBO; below 1.0x means liabilities exceed accumulated net assets. v1 caveat: we use total liabilities rather than long-term debt isolated (a Form 990 Schedule D detail we do not yet parse), which understates this ratio for schools carrying significant short-term debt.
WHY REVENUE MIX MATTERS
Program revenue = tuition and fees. Contributions = annual fund + capital campaigns + restricted gifts. Investment income = endowment payout, interest, and realized/unrealized gains. 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. A balanced mix (program + contributions + investment) signals resilience: 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.
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. For a healthy school, the load-bearing relationship is revenue CAGR ≥ expense CAGR. When expenses outpace revenue over three years, operating margin compresses even if the latest year still posts a surplus.
Net-asset CAGR captures the trajectory of accumulated reserves — a positive figure means the school is building cushion; a persistently negative figure means it is drawing down.
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% indicates a well-diversified revenue base (typical of mature boarding schools); above 90% is concentrated and warrants scenario planning for tuition shocks (an unfilled class, attrition spike).
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. 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.
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.
FACULTY AND STAFF · AVG COMP
Faculty and Staff Average Compensation is the average compensation of every employee at the school minus the top-compensated roster reported on Schedule J (officers, key employees, and highest-paid). The residual is almost entirely faculty plus staff — classroom teachers, division leadership below the head, admissions and advancement, athletics, business office, facilities, dining and after-school programs. The number includes both salary and benefits (medical, retirement, payroll tax).
(salaries_benefits − Σ top_comp.total_comp) ÷ (total_employees − count(top_comp))
For FY2023: salaries+benefits $97.0M · 1993 total employees · 8 top-comp rows totaling $3.1M · 1985 residual non-officer employees.
The Head’s comp gets the headlines; this is the line every other employee actually lives next to. A school whose average non-officer compensation runs $78K reads very differently from one where it runs $58K — and the IRS Form 990 carries enough to triangulate the answer without a NAIS DASL subscription.
This is an average across faculty and staff, not a faculty median. The 990 doesn’t separate classroom teachers from administrative, athletics, dining, maintenance, or after-school staff in the residual, and mixes full-time with part-time headcount. The number includes benefits, so it runs roughly 25-40% above pure salary. Schools with outsourced operations (dining, maintenance) will read higher than schools that employ that staff directly. A true faculty median requires NAIS DASL. We omit this metric entirely when fewer than six non-officer employees remain after the top-comp subtraction.
Approximate. Excludes the top-paid roster from Schedule J. Form 990 Part IX line 7. NAIS DASL would give true median.
PEER COMPARISON
Among 30 peer schools in the same size and region cohort, Punahou School’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 Punahou School.
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.
- Operating margin, endowment / OpEx — 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 now live on the Community Demographics panel for the roughly 924 of 1,620 HiveCheck schools that match against PSS — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria. Recutting cohorts on real NCES enrollment is a v1.2 refinement.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What it measures. The share of total revenue left over after operating expenses — calculated as (revenue − expenses) / revenue on the IRS Form 990. Positive = surplus reinvested; negative = deficit drawn from reserves.
How to read it. Higher is better. NACUBO scores a Net Operating Revenues ratio of about 1.3% (i.e. operating margin ~1.3%) as the “baseline” SF 1.0 reading; sustained surpluses of 3–8% are the healthy range for K-12 independent schools. A persistent negative margin signals reserve drawdown.
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.
- Operating margin, endowment / OpEx — 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 now live on the Community Demographics panel for the roughly 924 of 1,620 HiveCheck schools that match against PSS — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria. Recutting cohorts on real NCES enrollment is a v1.2 refinement.
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% indicates a well-diversified revenue base (typical of mature boarding schools); above 90% is concentrated.
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.
- Operating margin, endowment / OpEx — 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 now live on the Community Demographics panel for the roughly 924 of 1,620 HiveCheck schools that match against PSS — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria. Recutting cohorts on real NCES enrollment is a v1.2 refinement.
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.
- Operating margin, endowment / OpEx — 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 now live on the Community Demographics panel for the roughly 924 of 1,620 HiveCheck schools that match against PSS — but peer cohort matching still uses the 990-derived size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria. Recutting cohorts on real NCES enrollment is a v1.2 refinement.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What it measures. Net assets divided by total annual operating expense. Expresses how many years of operations the school could fund from its accumulated net position. The v1 calculation uses total net assets (Schedule A) rather than expendable net assets isolated.
How to read it. Higher is better. For independent schools, <1x is a thin cushion, 1–3x is healthy, 3x+ indicates a deep institutional balance sheet (typical of established boarding schools and large day schools with mature endowments).
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 operating margin and reserves 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 now live on the Community Demographics panel for the roughly 924 of 1,620 HiveCheck schools that match against PSS 2021-22; peer cohort matching still uses the 990 size proxy so every school (matched or not) resolves against the same criteria, and recutting cohorts on real enrollment is a v1.2 refinement.
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.
Families here can afford tuition, but the local giving climate is thin. Paying Capacity reads 69 / 100 and Giving Capacity 38 / 100 for the 96822 area. Read this as an enrollment market where financial-aid strategy will matter more than betting on local wealth. 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.
COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS
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. It covers ~22,000 private schools across the country and reports total enrollment, per-grade enrollment, FTE teachers, and basic school identity.
Most recent published vintage: 2021-2022 (released September 2023). The 2023-24 vintage collection is in the field; expected release fall 2025.
HiveCheck → NCES match for this school: auto exact at 95% confidence (PPIN 00326882). 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-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 $21K–$153K). Your realistic market is concentrated in the higher-income communities below.
Families come from 21 communities — including Ewa Beach, HI, Waipahu, HI, and Kapolei, HI. Total population is 664,334, of whom 93,945 are school-age (5–17).
About 56% of the area’s school-age children are in 5 communities (Ewa Beach, HI, Waipahu, HI, and Kapolei, HI).
Each dot is one community — 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 21 ZIPS
| ZIP | Community | Typical income | $200K+ | % BA+ | Pop. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96706 | Ewa Beach, HI | $129K | 21.0% | 32.3% | 83,692 |
| 96797 | Waipahu, HI | $115K | 20.0% | 26.0% | 72,435 |
| 96744 | Kaneohe, HI | $132K | 28.3% | 40.0% | 57,620 |
| 96817 | Honolulu, HI | $75K | 13.3% | 31.1% | 55,492 |
| 96816 | Honolulu, HI | $115K | 25.5% | 48.5% | 50,883 |
| 96734 | Kailua, HI | $133K | 30.1% | 54.2% | 50,670 |
| 96819 | Honolulu, HI | $100K | 24.1% | 24.9% | 50,345 |
| 96707 | Kapolei, HI | $120K | 22.1% | 32.7% | 48,807 |
| 96822 | Honolulu, HI | $96K | 20.2% | 56.9% | 43,747 |
| 96825 | Honolulu, HI | $153K | 32.9% | 59.4% | 30,913 |
| 96826 | Honolulu, HI | $68K | 5.9% | 39.2% | 29,174 |
| 96815 | Honolulu, HI | $77K | 11.2% | 47.6% | 27,530 |
| 96813 | Honolulu, HI | $92K | 16.7% | 48.6% | 26,766 |
| 96814 | Honolulu, HI | $78K | 12.9% | 49.2% | 24,689 |
| 96795 | Waimanalo, HI | $121K | 25.6% | 21.5% | 10,675 |
| 96848 | Honolulu, HI | $21K | 0.0% | 55.5% | 573 |
| 96858 | Fort Shafter, HI | — | — | 17.1% | 323 |
| 96859 | Tripler Army Medical Center, HI | — | — | — | 0 |
| 96759 | Kunia, HI | — | — | — | 0 |
| 96820 | Honolulu, HI | — | — | — | 0 |
| 96850 | Honolulu, HI | — | — | — | 0 |
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?
The typical family within a 45-minute drive earns $110,054. At $34,730 a year (net of aid), your tuition is 32% of that income — Aid territory.
How this verdict is set
The verdict is a plain read on tuition affordability at the catchment level, computed as tuition (net of financial aid) divided by the typical household income in the school’s 45-minute drive-time draw area.
- Comfortable — tuition is 15% or less of the typical income. The median family can absorb tuition without aid.
- A stretch — tuition is between 15% and 30% of income. The median family would feel the price; the paying pool is the higher-income segment plus targeted aid.
- Aid territory — tuition exceeds 30% of income. The median family needs aid; the sustainable paying pool is the $200K+ segment and the aid budget.
Tuition is the school’s IRS 990 net revenue per student (program-service revenue divided by enrollment) — an estimate of the net-of-aid price, not the sticker price. Typical income is the population-weighted median household income across the ZIPs (ZCTAs) that fall within roughly 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 tuition proxy is a 990-derived estimate that trails the current year and may not reflect a recent tuition change.
~20,000 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.
The median family here needs financial aid to attend. Your sustainable paying pool is the $200K+ segment — the 21.2% of local households earning $200K+ plus the aid budget you're willing to fund.
Tuition is a 990-derived net-of-aid estimate; 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. FINANCIAL CUSHION reads reserves against a year of operating expense; we never publish a back-calculated endowment dollar.
PPP years (FY2020 and FY2021) 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.
A growing, broad-based giving culture. Contributed revenue climbed from about $14.1M a year in its earliest filings (FY2017–FY2019) to roughly $19.8M in the latest filings, holding near 12% of revenue — the shape of a durable giving habit, not a one-time windfall.
How much of the recent rise is the annual fund versus a one-time campaign, and how deep is the donor base below the largest few gifts?
Gifts run about 12% of revenue. Most recent filing (FY2023): $21.6M.
FY2020–21 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, not inflation-adjusted; roughly 20% cumulative inflation over this window means flat giving is a real-terms decline.
TREND · 4-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 GROWING, at least -20% reads ERODING, anything between reads FLAT. 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 rose from an average of $14.1M (FY2017-2019) to $19.8M (FY2022-2023) — up about 40%. Compared first-few-years to last-few-years so one big year can’t drive the read.
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 VOLATILE-FRAGILE.
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.
Small-sample estimate.
SHARE OF REVENUE
Gifts and grants as a share of total revenue, averaged over the non-PPP years — the fingerprint of a giving culture versus tuition-only economics.
Bands: under 5% reads TRANSACTIONAL (the school runs largely on tuition; a Head-led push would be building the muscle from a low base). Between 5% and 10% reads TYPICAL for a day school — a real, working annual fund. Above 10% reads STRONG CULTURE — a defining piece of the budget.
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 12% of revenue — a defining piece of the budget. This reads as an established giving culture, not a nice-to-have.
FINANCIAL CUSHION
The school’s reserves against a year of operating expense (net assets ÷ annual operating cost), taken from the same 990 balance sheets. We never publish a back-calculated endowment dollar — that estimate is unreliable.
Bands: under 0.5 years reads NO CUSHION — a soft year lands straight on operations. Between 0.5 and 1 reads MODEST. Between 1 and 2 reads SOLID. Above 2 reads STRONG.
When the balance-sheet ratio isn’t reported we fall back to investment income: median under about $25k/year reads NO CUSHION; more than that reads RESERVE PRESENT without sizing the endowment. Not scored with fewer than three non-PPP filings. Caveat: reserves include property and plant, so this is a rough cushion, not spendable cash.
Reserves exceed twice the annual budget — a strong cushion behind the school.
Reserves include property and plant, which aren’t spendable — read this as a rough cushion, not a war chest. We don’t back-calculate an endowment dollar figure from investment income; that estimate is unreliable.
No standout higher-capacity communities 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.
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. FY2020 and FY2021 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 reserve cushion 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 — a broad donor base moves less than reliance on a few large relationships. SHARE OF REVENUE compares gifts to total revenue — the fingerprint of a giving culture vs. tuition-only economics. FINANCIAL CUSHION reads investment income and net assets — is there a reserve behind the operating budget or not?
PPP years (FY2020, FY2021) 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. GROWING, FLAT, ERODING, VOLATILE-FRAGILE — 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
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 OVERSATURATED (private capacity already exceeds 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.
A crowded field. About 48 private schools within 45 minutes; private enrollment fills roughly 85% of the affording-family pool (0.85×) — schools compete hard for every enrollment.
In a full market, what's the school's real same-format niche (grade span, coed vs single-sex, mission) — and is it widening or narrowing?
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 85% of the affording-family pool sits in a private seat.
Private seats fill about 85% of the affording-family pool across the catchment — this school serves elementary, middle, and high.
48 private schools, about 17,014 seats, 11 nonsectarian, within 45 minutes.
Whether that count is rising or falling needs the biennial PSS backfill.
No single school dominates 48 players — a fragmented market. About 23% are nonsectarian.
A precise concentration score (HHI) needs per-school enrollment history.
The county runs 185 public schools enrolling 112,849 students, including 16 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, 48 private schools enroll about 17,014 students in total, against the 19,962 school-age children in families who can likely afford tuition. That is about one private seat filled per affording child (0.85×) — the affording pool is essentially full, so schools compete hard for every enrollment.
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 48 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.
The most-saturated grade band here reads as an oversupplied middle-school market — more private seats than the local affording-family pool can fill, so schools compete hard for enrollment.
Estimated net revenue per student: $34,730 — about 32% of the draw area's $110,054 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 from Census ACS ZIP-level data over the drive-time catchment. Competing private schools counts the NCES Private School Universe within that same 45-minute drive 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 relatively consolidated public market: about 185 public schools serving roughly 112,849 students, an average near 610 per school. 16 of those are charter schools, a public alternative that competes for the same families an independent school can enroll 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.
ENROLLMENT & DEMAND PROFILE
HOW WE READ DEMAND
The trajectory verdict is anchored on the school’s own IRS Form 990 tuition-and-fees line (Part VIII line 2) — realized demand in nominal dollars, year by year. We average the earliest half of the years and compare to the latest half. Bands: growth of at least +20% reads EXPANDING, +5% to +20% reads STEADY, -5% to +5% reads SOFTENING, below -5% reads ERODING. When year-to-year swings dominate (a coefficient of variation of 20% or more, four-plus years) the verdict flips to STRAINED.
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%. DEMAND 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 × price, not the two 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).
Demand is steady. Tuition & fees have held around $121.6M a year — up about 28% over 2017–2023 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 is enrollment × price; the 990 can’t split the two.
Figures are nominal; roughly 20% cumulative inflation over this window means flat tuition revenue is a real-terms decline.
Ran about $104.7M a year early on (FY2017–FY2020) versus $121.6M lately (FY2021–FY2023) — 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 $35K per student — roughly 32% of the area’s $110K median household income, against 19,962 school-age children in $200k+ households within the drive.
County births ran about 13,453 a year in 2011–2016 and about 11,326 in 2018–2024 (-16%) — 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 demand signal — this year's births are kindergarten demand in about five years.
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 tuition 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 kindergarten demand and paying capacity.
BY THE NUMBERS · MIGRATION & HOME PRICES
FHFA House Price Index over available quarters for ZIP3 968.
Home prices are still rising even as affluent households move out, so the appreciation is being driven by existing owners rather than new arrivals.
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. Each question is anchored to a specific number so you can defend asking it. 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 14% and 4% 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 14% + INVESTMENT INCOME 4% OF REVENUE
The balance sheet carries roughly 4.3 years of operating cushion, a sizable position. What's the board's framework for when and how the school spends from those reserves versus protects them?
TRIGGERED BY: NET ASSETS / OPEX = 4.3 YEARS
Average compensation per employee on the 990 (mixing full- and part-time) runs around $49K. What does the full-time faculty salary scale actually look like, and how does it compare to comparable schools in the area?
TRIGGERED BY: SALARIES + BENEFITS / TOTAL EMPLOYEES = $49K
How long has the current board chair been in role, and what's the typical board tenure and term structure here? In particular, who on the board would the Head's first three big decisions need to move through?
TRIGGERED BY: GOVERNANCE QUESTIONS ARE STANDARD FINAL-ROUND TERRITORY
Revenue is up about 8.8% per year over the last three years on the 990s, well above demographic and inflation drift. What's actually driving that (enrollment growth, tuition increases, new programs, capital projects coming online), and is it expected to continue?
TRIGGERED BY: REVENUE CAGR 8.8% (3-YEAR)
These are starting points, not a script. The strongest version of any question becomes specific once you walk the campus and meet the team.
Roles and compensation as filed on the public IRS Form 990 Schedule J. Individual names are withheld.
Board of trustees (IRS Form 990, Part VII)
Compiled by Lomuscio Labs on July 19, 2026 from verified public datasets — IRS Form 990 (through FY2024), 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 2026-05-13.
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-time areas: map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routing via openrouteservice.org.