s/o of SSFS closing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are all at risk. There's no hope that a large donor will swoop in at the last minute. This is happening to small schools and colleges all over the country. The cost of teacher salaries is rising - the gap between public and private is too high and tuition costs are growing and don't cover anything. Schools ask for money all the time and are ignored. People are shocked when schools are closed - but the schools ask for money and show you graduation pictures where the class size is smaller every year - and no one seems to put it together. Schools try new programs, going co ed, adding grades. It is sad for SSFS. but there will be more.

Exactly. Parents want more and more from the schools. They want it to be affordable and diverse and give out tons of financial aid and keep tuition "attainable." Then they balk when asked to give to the annual fund, screaming "I'm already paying tuition"

That's simply not the model of independent schools. Every school sets tuition lower than the cost to educate the child. It's not sustainable, especially without a roster of wealthy alumni families who can write million dollar checks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:International boarding was part of the business model for that failed Intelsat school, too. Georgetown Prep and Madeira are two other schools around here with a bunch of international boarders, though I tend to assume Georgetown Prep has resources or donors who will see it through if it comes to that.

I don't know anything about Prep but went to Madeira and my take is that they, and other similar schools, with loyal alums in their 60s and 70s are going to have SO MUCH BOOMER MONEY coming through bequests in the next two decades that they will be able to build campuses on the moon if they want to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is always a good idea to check the 990 forms for the schools you are considering. Not all schools have them because many get a religious exemption.

My two favorite data points endowment and financial aid numbers.

How is the endowment fund total trend? I think endowments are what help schools weather ups and downs.

I also like to look at the financial aid total divided by the listed number of recipients. A healthy school will have about 1/4 of the student body receiving an average of 50% aid. Some schools might be able to swing more, especially those with large endowments.

That isn't how endowments work. Most of the funds in endowments ar earmarked for very specific programs or uses.

That’s not true - a large endowment 100% provides a cushion in hard times - we’ve seen this in action

Your comment is not true. Depending on how the endowment is structured it might not be able to be used for operations, scholarships, programming etc. Some endowments are unrestricted use, but many have been restricted in their use and can't be modified.

[Anonymous]

A K-8 HOS told me SSFS was expensive because they have to pay for all that land.

When looking at private high schools, I did consider how much land they had and how much it might cost.

[Anonymous]

Many schools went wild with DEI facilitators even though these positions could’ve easily been covered by existing faculty members.

Also, they ramped up FA to existing students to keep them without verifying true need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:International boarding was part of the business model for that failed Intelsat school, too. Georgetown Prep and Madeira are two other schools around here with a bunch of international boarders, though I tend to assume Georgetown Prep has resources or donors who will see it through if it comes to that.

Madeira has an endowment that is 7x that of Prep's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A K-8 HOS told me SSFS was expensive because they have to pay for all that land.

When looking at private high schools, I did consider how much land they had and how much it might cost.

Did they not own that land? “Paying for all that land” means maintenance, etc.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many schools went wild with DEI facilitators even though these positions could’ve easily been covered by existing faculty members.

Also, they ramped up FA to existing students to keep them without verifying true need.

“It’s absurd how schools are piling DEI work on the plates of overworked faculty. They aren’t experts in DEI; they are experts in their field.”

See how silly that sounds? Of course schools need a dedicated DEIB role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is always a good idea to check the 990 forms for the schools you are considering. Not all schools have them because many get a religious exemption.

My two favorite data points endowment and financial aid numbers.

How is the endowment fund total trend? I think endowments are what help schools weather ups and downs.

I also like to look at the financial aid total divided by the listed number of recipients. A healthy school will have about 1/4 of the student body receiving an average of 50% aid. Some schools might be able to swing more, especially those with large endowments.

That isn't how endowments work. Most of the funds in endowments ar earmarked for very specific programs or uses.

That’s not true - a large endowment 100% provides a cushion in hard times - we’ve seen this in action

The truth is that an endowment has to be many times larger than operating expenses to make a difference because usually the principal is not to be touched. But it all depends on the rules around the endowment when it’s established.

Yes - a l said a "large endowment". It's HOS job to spearhead these endowment campaigns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is always a good idea to check the 990 forms for the schools you are considering. Not all schools have them because many get a religious exemption.

My two favorite data points endowment and financial aid numbers.

How is the endowment fund total trend? I think endowments are what help schools weather ups and downs.

I also like to look at the financial aid total divided by the listed number of recipients. A healthy school will have about 1/4 of the student body receiving an average of 50% aid. Some schools might be able to swing more, especially those with large endowments.

That isn't how endowments work. Most of the funds in endowments ar earmarked for very specific programs or uses.

That’s not true - a large endowment 100% provides a cushion in hard times - we’ve seen this in action

Your comment is not true. Depending on how the endowment is structured it might not be able to be used for operations, scholarships, programming etc. Some endowments are unrestricted use, but many have been restricted in their use and can't be modified.

It was true at the 3 schools we have attended. They all have strong endowments and strong leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many schools went wild with DEI facilitators even though these positions could’ve easily been covered by existing faculty members.

Also, they ramped up FA to existing students to keep them without verifying true need.

Yea, sure, that was the problem - not COVID and then politics that led to the bottoming out of the boarding income stream.

[Anonymous]

Another poster mentioned that many independent schools are at risk. We will see what the fallout is from the mass Federal layoffs.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if location hurt SSFS too. One the one hand, you would think there's less competition, but on the other there's probably a lower concentration of wealthy private school families that would consider it. I know a lot of folks in D.C. that had looked at SSFS in the past but opted for other options due to the distance/commute. I imagine other schools in the outer burbs, like Barrie, are in a similar spot unless they cater to a very specific (and rich) niche.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's sad for people who are not uber-wealthy and not Catholic. There aren't a lot of schools that attract families from public school backgrounds. They had many, which means they are piecing together tuition and can't make 5K, 20K, 50K donations to the school on the regular.

But because other schools operate this way, local schools have to attempt to compete to woo students. Maybe they overreached with building a high school or having such a massive campus to maintain.

The upper school was absolutely an overreach.

We were part of the SSFS community for many years until about 2010. It was a big deal when the built the PAC, the athletic center and the new middle school. One could have argued back then that only the new middle school made sense. At the time they justified the other two buildings with the potential to monetize the space by renting the facilities in the evenings. I don’t think that math worked out for them.

Yes, the upper school facilities were old but I was shocked by the “palace” they built at a time when it seemed like they were taking on too much debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A K-8 HOS told me SSFS was expensive because they have to pay for all that land.

When looking at private high schools, I did consider how much land they had and how much it might cost.

The land was a donation from Esther Brooke and their non profit status protected them from property taxes.
However, upkeep on the buildings is expensive. And they took on too much debt with all the building programs in the last 20 years. For most of its existence SSFS was a small, simple, nothing fancy school. That model was unique and it worked.
They were poorly served by recent boards and got out over their skis