Saint Francis School

“The Conflict-of-Interest policy must be followed. All decision-making should be documented. Proper documentation ensure that all meetings have the proper board members to satisfy quorum. Any family member should abstain from voting whenever an interest in the outcome that directly affects any related party personally or monetarily, in a manner not shared by the other members of the group. The person should not participate or be present at any meeting during which the discussion of the possible conflict of interest takes place.”

“All board members received a draft of Form 990 in advanced and were provided a reasonable period of time to examine and provide feedback in the final preparation and relay pertinent information back to the full board.”

“The school monitors and reviews the Conflict-of-Interest policy by: (1) Reviewing the annual disclosure forms; (2) The organization is required to ask vendor or service provider to disclose any relationship with any of the organization's directors, officers, employees or volunteers. (3) The organization undertakes a periodic review of transactions involving any significant expenditure. (4) Annually reviews of employee salary to ensure any compensation paid continues to be reasonable. If a possible conflict is identified, the organization is committed to following the procedures in its conflict-of-interest policy”

“The organization uses comparability data from K-12 school located in Puerto Rico, in relation with the job position, to establish a just and reasonable compensation. Ultimately the Board of Directors must review and approve the compensation, including any bonuses and benefits, of the Officer, to ensure that the payment is just and reasonable, based on the comparability data. The Conflict-of-Interest policy must be consulted.”

“The organization has its governing documents/policies and financial statements available upon request, at the employees intranet, and state/federal websites (where available). Francheska Salib is the person in charge of those documents.”

“LATE FILING EXPLANATION: Saint Francis School provides childcare and K-12 educational services. A local independent accountant helped us apply for tax-exempt status with the IRS in March 4, 2020; days before the declaration of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Effective on March 15, 2020, an Executive Order in Puerto Rico (OE-2020-023), implemented a necessary closure of governmental and private sector operations in order to combat the effects of COVID-19 and to control the risk of infection on our island. On July 31st, 2020, a new executive order (OE-2020-060) relaxed several restrictions, including the reopening of childcare centers and on February 22, 2021 (OE-2021-017) included K-12 education system to return. Once we returned to school premises, we opened a postal correspondence from the IRS with the notice of 501c(3) exemption status determination, dated June 3rd, 2020 and postmarked June 12, 2020. Once the executive order was lifted for our industry, we completed the Financial Statement and the audit concluded February 2021. As soon as the audit was completed, we prepared our 2019 Form 990, which we filed on February 22, 2021. No extension of time to file was requested, since we were unaware of the filing procedures as first timers. Our volunteer board of directors is made up of parents of students and no one has any experience with IRS 990 tax matters. We believe we have reasonable cause for filing late due to government restrictions to operate the school during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of tax matter knowledge. We believe this demonstrates that we did not willfully neglect our filing requirement and that we acted responsibly and in good faith immediately as the Executive Order permitted. To prevent future late filings, we have coordinated with the board of directors and the independent CPA of the annual filing requirements that pertain to the organization, established deadlines, and created protocols to assure on-time filing, the request of extension of time and prevent lateness in case of any unexpected and unavoidable event. We respectfully request that the IRS abate all assessed penalties and interest related to our 2019 Form 990. The facts presented here, to the best of my knowledge and belief, are true, correct, and complete. Thank you for considering our request. Francheska Salib, School Administrator”

“Net Assets or fund balance at beginning of year. This is an initial return.”