SSFS Closing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the Friends of SSFS Coalition’s latest email:
“The donor commitments over the past 48 hours have been remarkable. We have $9M+ in pledges, which has given our primary angel donor the confidence to guarantee the money up front to keep the school open for the next three years. Our long-term goal is to set up an endowment so that nothing like this can happen again.”

You can sign up at the link below (making any sort of pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

edit:
You can sign up at the link below (*without* making any sort of monetary pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who gets FA. No idea how much tbh but he says he gets FA.
Inherited over 800k in a house when parent died and turned around and bought another house that’s a vacation home.
Kinda mind blowing. Even if it’s only 5k in FA he shouldn’t be getting it imo.

[Anonymous]

Above poster, at SSFS to be clear.

[Anonymous]

I knew multiple families at ssfs who said they came here because other schools did not offer them the financial aid package they were getting here (a couple even told me how much they got and it was 50% “exceeding their expectations”). At the time I thought it was wonderful that ssfs was able to help families this way. Now I wonder if ssfs was handing out aid they couldn’t afford and hiking tuition of the rest of us to fund it.

[Anonymous]

I guess without a 990 nobody knows what the revenue and expense breakdown was? But probably fair to guess that there was too much given in financial aid and probably too little charged for full tuition. The tuition was a lot lower than the northwest DC schools. Did SSFS not think their families could go to the mid $50k range? Maybe a significantly lower tuition was part of what they thought would draw people out to Olney.

[Anonymous]

The slightly lower tuition is how they got a lot of full pay families who fall in gap between very wealthy and FA. Enrollment would’ve dropped more and faster if they hiked it even higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess without a 990 nobody knows what the revenue and expense breakdown was? But probably fair to guess that there was too much given in financial aid and probably too little charged for full tuition. The tuition was a lot lower than the northwest DC schools. Did SSFS not think their families could go to the mid $50k range? Maybe a significantly lower tuition was part of what they thought would draw people out to Olney.

Ssfs isn’t the same as the DC 50K schools. So they can’t charge that much and expect people to stay or new ppl to come. When they crossed 40K, that was already too high for me. I left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the Friends of SSFS Coalition’s latest email:
“The donor commitments over the past 48 hours have been remarkable. We have $9M+ in pledges, which has given our primary angel donor the confidence to guarantee the money up front to keep the school open for the next three years. Our long-term goal is to set up an endowment so that nothing like this can happen again.”

You can sign up at the link below (making any sort of pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

So -is SSFS staying open?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the Friends of SSFS Coalition’s latest email:
“The donor commitments over the past 48 hours have been remarkable. We have $9M+ in pledges, which has given our primary angel donor the confidence to guarantee the money up front to keep the school open for the next three years. Our long-term goal is to set up an endowment so that nothing like this can happen again.”

You can sign up at the link below (making any sort of pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

So -is SSFS staying open?

We’re working on it. Join us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the Friends of SSFS Coalition’s latest email:
“The donor commitments over the past 48 hours have been remarkable. We have $9M+ in pledges, which has given our primary angel donor the confidence to guarantee the money up front to keep the school open for the next three years. Our long-term goal is to set up an endowment so that nothing like this can happen again.”

You can sign up at the link below (making any sort of pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

So -is SSFS staying open?

If this is really happening, that’s wonderful for your community. Respectfully, an endowment that prevents that from happening again needs to be hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a long-term ambition. What the school really needs immediately is a visionary leader and bold decision maker to correct the trajectory. And the entire board needs to be excused and replaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew multiple families at ssfs who said they came here because other schools did not offer them the financial aid package they were getting here (a couple even told me how much they got and it was 50% “exceeding their expectations”). At the time I thought it was wonderful that ssfs was able to help families this way. Now I wonder if ssfs was handing out aid they couldn’t afford and hiking tuition of the rest of us to fund it.

Absolutely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the Friends of SSFS Coalition’s latest email:
“The donor commitments over the past 48 hours have been remarkable. We have $9M+ in pledges, which has given our primary angel donor the confidence to guarantee the money up front to keep the school open for the next three years. Our long-term goal is to set up an endowment so that nothing like this can happen again.”

You can sign up at the link below (making any sort of pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

So -is SSFS staying open?

We’re working on it. Join us!

I understand your love for the school. I understand your dream to keep it open. But saying you “got pledges!” Without even having a full understanding of the schools finances sounds like you’re as naive as the ppl who “got pledges!” Built a high school and got us in the mess. How are you different? Can you even share the schools full financial hole with us now in order for us to trust you have a solid plan? Are you basing your solution based on the email and FAQ of a board that has clearly hidden key information and you think that makes a solid plan? That’s completely laughable. Hasn’t it occurred to you that if it was as simple as raising $16 million the board would have tried that? Or you think such a simple solution has occurred only to you?

Share the books. Then we talk. I’m not signing a pledge without a concrete balance sheet/990 to review. This is like the community is trying to do what the board did. Make empty promises!

[Anonymous]

We left due to tuition hikes. Really got annoying when we kept being pressured to donate more and pay our fair share when we were making questionable personal financial decisions to pay just the full tuition.

[Anonymous]

Those of us who have been part of this wonderful community are saddened but the course of events that has led to SSFS closing. There is a lot of speculation and finger-pointing trying to assess blame. SSFS took a calculated risk to build an upper school to bring in more students and more tuition dollars - and it had its largest graduating class in 2023. By undertaking that risk, they could not have foreseen how COVID and RG leadership would impact the school so negatively. Taking risks involves navigating complex situations where a single factor rarely determines the outcome. In hindsight there are many things that could have been handled differently but as with so many things in life, I don't know that we will find an explanation or a scapegoat to blame.

At this point, our family has decided to focus on the positives that SSFS has given us and we are holding those who are directly impacted in the light. It does us no good to be angry about the outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the Friends of SSFS Coalition’s latest email:
“The donor commitments over the past 48 hours have been remarkable. We have $9M+ in pledges, which has given our primary angel donor the confidence to guarantee the money up front to keep the school open for the next three years. Our long-term goal is to set up an endowment so that nothing like this can happen again.”

You can sign up at the link below (making any sort of pledge) to get further updates or contribute your time or talents.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGcMj7TwE0wjzHBO_FqiFLK58hy4Fz05u7R0TH9eOoftQWDA/viewform?pli=1

So -is SSFS staying open?

We’re working on it. Join us!

I understand your love for the school. I understand your dream to keep it open. But saying you “got pledges!” Without even having a full understanding of the schools finances sounds like you’re as naive as the ppl who “got pledges!” Built a high school and got us in the mess. How are you different? Can you even share the schools full financial hole with us now in order for us to trust you have a solid plan? Are you basing your solution based on the email and FAQ of a board that has clearly hidden key information and you think that makes a solid plan? That’s completely laughable. Hasn’t it occurred to you that if it was as simple as raising $16 million the board would have tried that? Or you think such a simple solution has occurred only to you?

Share the books. Then we talk. I’m not signing a pledge without a concrete balance sheet/990 to review. This is like the community is trying to do what the board did. Make empty promises!

Anyone in the community can join the coalition, and that is where information is being shared as it is discovered. It won’t be posted here. You absolutely do not need to make a pledge to join the coalition.