Is there a market for a cheaper no frills private school

[Anonymous]

Non religious, best practices, gives more than public school, but not extravagant.

Don't need a physical plant any nicer than MCPS, just need more specials, good academics, pleasant staff.
$19K a year? Can it be done?

[Anonymous]

yes, if it's in DC. there is huge demand for an option in between DCPS and $30K+ fancy privates.

[Anonymous]

Isn't the British School less expensive than the others?

[Anonymous]

It can't be done.

I am serious - if you are paying teachers who are applying best practices how much of a salary /benefits are you going to pay?
This is the DC area - what do you think real estate costs?
You want more specials? Those are not free.

Yes - there would be a huge demand for it - but the privates cost that amount for a reason. Take a look at Gonzaga or St. Johns. It fulfills what you are looking for but they are religious. Tuition there is $15-17K. Gonzaga has been around for not quite 200 years so it has a lot of things paid for as well as a bit of an endowment.

Unless you are going to require a serious amount of volunteerism from all families such that it will off-set teachers / admin / enrichment costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't the British School less expensive than the others?

Yes, BSW tuition ranges from $20 - $25K depending on Year

[Anonymous]

French International School ranges from 14K-18K depending on grade.

[Anonymous]

I have kids at Big 3. But I find the idea of $15-20k school so appealing. NOt just for the savings in money, but the idea that my kids would be at something cutting edge and interesting. A school focused on the kids instead of the brand. A school focused on teaching instead of facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have kids at Big 3. But I find the idea of $15-20k school so appealing. NOt just for the savings in money, but the idea that my kids would be at something cutting edge and interesting. A school focused on the kids instead of the brand. A school focused on teaching instead of facilities.

PP - I totally agree. We found ourselves in the private admissions process unexpectedly this year - 100% to deal with a specific educational need for our child - and I actually found it staggering the amount of resources that must go into these "beautiful" facilities. I'd see other parents on tours "ooing and ahhhing" over some part of the school's "physical plant" and I'd be thinking - "Wow - how much could be saved off these huge tuitions if they didn't spend so much money on competing for the nicest facilities".

[Anonymous]

If you're really interested in studying this, you should look closely that the public Form 990s that schools file. It's not as easy as saying "Let's just cut the expensive fancy stuff."

As an example, here is Maret's 2009 Form 990:http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/530/530211355/530211355_200906_990.pdf . Look especially at the summary on page 1, and the detailed breakdown of revenue & expenses on pages 10-11. Most large ongoing costs are pretty necessary to the functioning of the school, since they are linked to payroll for teachers and other people. So if you want to cut tuition to $19k, you need to find about $7m in "fat" you can cut from this budget.

Major items in Maret budget:
Tuition & fees: $17m
Salaries, benefits, payroll taxes, etc: $11.4m
Grants (financial aid?): $2.3m
Office, occupancy & other operating expenses: ~$1.2-1.6m
Depreciation: $1.2m
Interest payments on bonds: $845k
Other (?) expenses: $720k
+ various other costs
Total revenue less expenses: $1.9m

It seems like the biggest targets for cuts would be the number of teachers (which results in bigger classes and fewer specials), or grants & financial aid (which carries its own problems). I suspect either of those changes would harm morale among teachers, staff, and parents, which erodes the other positive qualities and dries up any donations from parents.

I'm not saying it's impossible to operate a no-frills school that offers high-quality education. And I'm not trying to deter discussion of the subject. But I don't think there are many easy solutions.

[Anonymous]

Capitol Hill Day School is $24k and is defintely kid focused, has lots of specials including a field education program with weekly field trips that are integrated with the curriculum. I had 2 kids graduate from there and we had a great experience. It's not $19k, but certainly less than $30-32k.

[Anonymous]

Feynman School is $19K for first grade and less for preschool through K. They only go through 1st grade right now but plan to add a grade every year through grade 8. It's a school for advanced learners. If you think your child might fit that description I definitely recommend it.

http://feynmanschool.org/index

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Capitol Hill Day School is $24k and is defintely kid focused, has lots of specials including a field education program with weekly field trips that are integrated with the curriculum. I had 2 kids graduate from there and we had a great experience. It's not $19k, but certainly less than $30-32k.

But didn't I see on these boards that CHD is planning a big constuction project?

[Anonymous]

Hard to start from scratch -- so many privates have the benefit of owning campuses, non trivial endowments and the like.... But of course there would be enormous interest from parents -- it's boards and headmasters who want to BUILD BUILD BUILD. I think responsible, education focused education would be great for kids and parents alike. If I hear about one more "field house" for a private school I will puke.

[Anonymous]

Of course there is a market. Can it be done? I doubt it for all sorts of complicated reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're really interested in studying this, you should look closely that the public Form 990s that schools file. It's not as easy as saying "Let's just cut the expensive fancy stuff."

As an example, here is Maret's 2009 Form 990:http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/530/530211355/530211355_200906_990.pdf . Look especially at the summary on page 1, and the detailed breakdown of revenue & expenses on pages 10-11. Most large ongoing costs are pretty necessary to the functioning of the school, since they are linked to payroll for teachers and other people. So if you want to cut tuition to $19k, you need to find about $7m in "fat" you can cut from this budget.

Major items in Maret budget:
Tuition & fees: $17m
Salaries, benefits, payroll taxes, etc: $11.4m
Grants (financial aid?): $2.3m
Office, occupancy & other operating expenses: ~$1.2-1.6m
Depreciation: $1.2m
Interest payments on bonds: $845k
Other (?) expenses: $720k
+ various other costs
Total revenue less expenses: $1.9m

It seems like the biggest targets for cuts would be the number of teachers (which results in bigger classes and fewer specials), or grants & financial aid (which carries its own problems). I suspect either of those changes would harm morale among teachers, staff, and parents, which erodes the other positive qualities and dries up any donations from parents.

I'm not saying it's impossible to operate a no-frills school that offers high-quality education. And I'm not trying to deter discussion of the subject. But I don't think there are many easy solutions.

You could eliminate financial aid b/c at 19K a year, you would still have all kinds of diversity. Cut a school nurse, get a technician, get rid of some counselors, share teachers with other schools (art teacher works two private schools), class sizes up to 19-20 kids after 4th grade (best practices says it's OK after 4th grade)...