SSFS Will Stay Open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just delaying the inevitable unless they address the failure of leadership

They're going to. That's literally what "a path forward" and "more work will be needed" means.

I do expect the school to be a lot smaller the next couple years. But there are plenty of private schools with 200-odd students. They're working with lots of people in the world of Quaker school leadership.

So, so happy at this outcome and most happy for the upper school students who will get to stay and graduate in their community!

But are their plenty that can afford the real estate, buildings, and debt service of a 600-kid school? Because that's what SSFS has to do.

The coalition legal team are pretty sure that the debt will be restructured, and the $15m should cover that plus the school's operating deficit.

So basically operate a smaller school on an austerity budget for as long as it takes?

[Anonymous]

I just watched a SLAC going through something very similar. Although in that case, the Board announced a fundraising goal to stay open--one that was just impossible for this very niche community to meet and so it was assumed this was just window dressing ahead of the formal closure at the end of the school year. Some money was raised by alumni, the local community also rallied around the college. Faculty and staff agreed to a fairly radical restructuring, cutting nearly half the positions. coalition that raised the money and led the restructuring proposal originally pushed for significant changes to the Board but backed off. School is saved!

The following year? "We're closing, the end." Any attempts to have a conversation with the Board were ignored. Even if the coalition could have once again raised money (doubtful in the amount needed), the decision had been made. Frankly, the decision had been made the year before, the school was going to close no matter what, it just took the Board a little longer to maneuver things around to reach the desired outcome. It was heartbreaking to watch, you could see that even with the reprieve, the writing was plainly on the wall. A train wreck in slow motion.

I hope that is not the fate of SSFS, but I worry it very may well be. That the Board is largely going to remain in place is a huge red flag.

[Anonymous]

Has it been confirmed the Board is mostly remaining in place? I haven’t heard that and we’re part of the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has it been confirmed the Board is mostly remaining in place? I haven’t heard that and we’re part of the community.

Not confirmed yet. Could ask the coalition, but it's probably an incendiary question. Hopefully they clarify on Monday.

[Anonymous]

This is great news! Congrats to SSFS and their coalition.

Also, if I had a child in lower and middle school, I would be exploring other options, possibly off boarding after this year.

[Anonymous]

US students coming home with "information" today about the board and resignations is pure rumor. They got the same email we all got, the one on the website. Will find out more on community zoom tomorrow. No one is giving $15 million without a lot of conditions. FoSSFS stated that they had a lot of conditions for the raised money.

[Anonymous]

Lovely news, but, is anyone else pretty alarmed? This feels very concerning and like they are playing with our emotions. We're a newly enrolled family and I don't know what to make of any of this. We're feeling very conflicted and uncertain...and...scared to be honest.

[Anonymous]

We are a newly enrolled family as well and feel pretty conflicted as well. Unfortunately, our impression of the school has already soured to the point that we had made other plans after we received the original School Closing notification email and our deposit was returned. Does the school consider the original enrollment contracts valid now that the school will remain? I'm not an attorney, but that seems improper given the communications and return of deposits and willingness to have families explore other options. I would think the original terms are now null and void. I only ask because the original contract specified something about communicating in writing to the HOS school by May 1st if we intended not to attend in the Fall. After May 1 means you have agreed to fulfill your full tuition obligation. Any insight from this group of current and newly enrolled families? I don't think it's fair the school will only provide new information on April 28 and then expect families to have notified them by May 1 of a decision.

[Anonymous]

I expect many of these questions will get answered at the parent zoom tomorrow night.

[Anonymous]

I'll take the coalition at their word, no reason not to. That said, I suspect that there will be a not-insignificant gap between the "pledges" and actual money collected. Presumably, any sizable donation will be accompanied by appropriate diligence that may or may not pan out. It's easy to say "yes" out of passion and philanthropy, but harder if tough questions don't have answers. I'd also be curious what projections and assumptions were made to establish the $13-15M operating gap and what impact diminished enrollment would have on that. A school is only marginally tied to scale. A small student body still has much of the physical plant, the need to maintain it, some level of administration, activities, teachers, etc...

I also suspect, as others have mentioned, that they will lose at least half, and maybe more , of their enrollment. I totally understand why a high school senior would ride it out if possible. But if a freshman had other options, they would obviously pursue it. That simply delays the fiscal cliff.

Once a car company announces that it's in bankruptcy or going out of business, the market value of their vehicles change, even if the cars themselves are the same.

I feel like the best bet would be to try to find a school to merge with or to merge into it. If they have a large campus, it might be attractive to another school bursting at the seems.

In Philadelphia, Villanova recently "acquired" two smaller Catholic schools and their campuses. It gave the student bodies at the smaller, struggling schools an exit and gave allowed the mission of those schools to carry on.

[Anonymous]

*seams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a newly enrolled family as well and feel pretty conflicted as well. Unfortunately, our impression of the school has already soured to the point that we had made other plans after we received the original School Closing notification email and our deposit was returned. Does the school consider the original enrollment contracts valid now that the school will remain? I'm not an attorney, but that seems improper given the communications and return of deposits and willingness to have families explore other options. I would think the original terms are now null and void. I only ask because the original contract specified something about communicating in writing to the HOS school by May 1st if we intended not to attend in the Fall. After May 1 means you have agreed to fulfill your full tuition obligation. Any insight from this group of current and newly enrolled families? I don't think it's fair the school will only provide new information on April 28 and then expect families to have notified them by May 1 of a decision.

There is absolutely no way they could enforce those contracts now. They broke the contract and returned your deposit. You are in the drivers seat now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With a lower enrollment, staff should be ready for more layoffs, as well. It’s hardly sunshine and roses. I get that people want to act like this is amazing news, and I’m happy they have delayed the closure, but there are huge bumps in the road ahead.

This can't be stated strongly enough. We're in for a bumpy ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lovely news, but, is anyone else pretty alarmed? This feels very concerning and like they are playing with our emotions. We're a newly enrolled family and I don't know what to make of any of this. We're feeling very conflicted and uncertain...and...scared to be honest.

We're one year in and I can't tell you how alarmed we are. Everyone we've spoken to feels very uncomfortable with the whole situation. I didn't really trust the BOT's original message and felt that there was more going on. I feel rather similar about this. That's awfully fast to go from closing to a confirmed 3-years of open. How do we know that there is truth to that and it isn't just messaging. There is nothing that says that they have to be true to their word. I'll be at Barrie for their next open house and I'm heavily considering this as an alternative. It wasn't our first choice, but I feel like we've been engaged honestly. I guess you can see that, yes, we're pretty alarmed.

[Anonymous]

Teachers and staff would seemingly be at risk of a Whittle-like middle-of-the-year payment evaporation. I'm not a bankruptcy attorney, but if they ran out of funds and had to file a 11 (or, more likely 7), there is not guarantee that staff would not be subordinated to other creditors.

Definitely one of many major risk factors.