Circle Academy

City-funded organization

Circle Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit school based in Whitestone, Queens, tax-exempt since 1978 (EIN 11-2396685), with FY2025 revenue of $5.7 million per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Per its own website, it has run a Universal Pre-Kindergarten program aligned to New York State Pre-K benchmarks since the 2007-2008 school year, with sites in Whitestone, Jamaica, and Howard Beach. It has held $31.5 million in New York City Department of Education contracts since 2017, of which $25.9 million has been paid to date; none are active as of August 2026. Three "UPK-BTF" contracts totaling about $26.6 million were awarded through RFP, while two contracts titled "UPK - Universal Prekindergarten Services," worth $2.7 million and $2.1 million and both ending in 2021, are coded "Renewal (not re-bid)"; together these two account for the 16% of this vendor's contract value ($4.9 million) awarded without a fresh competitive bid.

Industry (per city contracts)
Human Services
City contracts
none active as of 2026-08-22 · $31,498,735 awarded since 2017
Paid to date
$25,851,529
Won without a fresh bid
16% of contract value · $4,883,389 · 2 contracts
Top officer pay (FY2024)
$340,162 · David Esfhani, Executive Di

Holds contracts at

City contracts

Registered city contracts, largest first by current contract value (not amount spent): running now, then registered to start later, then ended. Totals count every registered contract. Each line shows its Checkbook contract ID. The tag on each row is how it was awarded (“no-bid” = non-competitive).

Officer & key-staff pay

Reportable compensation from this organization's IRS Form 990 (Part VII), latest available filing (FY2024). Includes pay from related organizations where reported; an annual figure, not a running total. Source: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

Officer pay over time

Total officer pay changed +182% from FY2020 to FY2024. Top-officer reportable compensation by year (org-paid only), with each year's share of total revenue. Source: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer 990 filings.

Federal awards

Federal awards made directly to this organization in fiscal years 2023 through 2026. Each amount is what the federal government has OBLIGATED on that award as recorded on USAspending.gov as of 2026-08-31 — money committed, not money paid out. These are prime awards only: federal money this

Sources