SSFS Closing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like law of supply and demand? Lower tuition a little and fill the classrooms a lot? And get families priced out of other schools who could pay $35k

If you could successfully run a school at $35,000 tuition you would see that happening elsewhere. SSFS couldn’t successfully run a school at $45,000 tuition. The other thing is the toothpaste is out of the tube. Meaning, the trust is broken. Nobody in their right mind is going to give tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, hoping things turn out OK.

There are definitely schools in the 30s that are running successfully. We left ssfs to go to one last year. It’s why we left.

Of course it's possible. But it's very hard to get from here to there when SSFS is servicing many millions in debt and has an expensive new building to maintain.

[Anonymous]

AIMS could give a provisional re-accreditation. Governance/board and finances are big areas of each report and need to be healthy for re-accreditation to be offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Barrie is doing better than SSFS clearly. There’s also a lot of schools in the 30s in this area running successfully.

When you say there are a lot of schools in the 30s does that mean parochial schools supported by the Catholic Church or whatever? Or what area are you talking about? Because in the DMV upper schools are generally 50 to 60k. I haven’t looked up the 990 for Barrie, and I certainly don’t have boundless insight on the topic, but if Barrie is running annual deficits, they have a problem too.
If a school could be run with 35K tuition, they would have to have an awful lot of students and much bigger classes, which means they would also need to take on the debt of a building large enough to do that. Anyway, yes, I’m skeptical.

[Anonymous]

Lower tuition = lower teacher salaries. SSFS competes for teachers with schools which pay teachers well in MoCo and DC.

[Anonymous]

Barrie
Gilman
Baltimore friends
Glenelg country

Are 4 in the area under 40. That’s just a quick search

[Anonymous]

Informational heads-up for those who recently signed up for the Friends of SSFS Coalition and have been concerned or disheartened not to get the email update yesterday. On Slack one of the leaders posted they are having tech issues and put the update there, asking community members to share with others who don’t have access.
A very brief snippets:
1. “we have large goals beyond saving SSFS from the brink of being turned into a golf course or mixed-use development”—plans for the endowment once immediate crisis is addressed
2. Plan to get pledges in writing and clarify the governance changes that will be tied to them
3. they are in ongoing negotiations with the BOT
4. they’ve posted their Overall Purpose, Core Values, and Short-Term Goals (for the week) and asked for patience as they sort out tech issues
This is just my own quick unofficial summary b/c I cannot cut-and-paste from my phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lower tuition = lower teacher salaries. SSFS competes for teachers with schools which pay teachers well in MoCo and DC.

Do you think those tuition hikes in the last few years were going into teacher pockets? I don’t think so.

[Anonymous]

Key School and Indian Creek as well.

If the school can’t lower tuition to get enrollment up, how are they supposed to get enrollment up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Barrie
Gilman
Baltimore friends
Glenelg country

Are 4 in the area under 40. That’s just a quick search

The list is quite longer if you include schools that just crossed 40K for 25-26 but are still lower than ssfs. So the comparison is against each school year, not last years ssfs vs next years other school. So the question is value vs cost compared to ssfs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Barrie is doing better than SSFS clearly. There’s also a lot of schools in the 30s in this area running successfully.

When you say there are a lot of schools in the 30s does that mean parochial schools supported by the Catholic Church or whatever? Or what area are you talking about? Because in the DMV upper schools are generally 50 to 60k. I haven’t looked up the 990 for Barrie, and I certainly don’t have boundless insight on the topic, but if Barrie is running annual deficits, they have a problem too.
If a school could be run with 35K tuition, they would have to have an awful lot of students and much bigger classes, which means they would also need to take on the debt of a building large enough to do that. Anyway, yes, I’m skeptical.

If you think only catholic schools are cheaper than ssfs and schools are usually 50-60 (not even in the 40s!) you’re clearly not doing any research. I guess that’s why what the coalition says makes sense to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Informational heads-up for those who recently signed up for the Friends of SSFS Coalition and have been concerned or disheartened not to get the email update yesterday. On Slack one of the leaders posted they are having tech issues and put the update there, asking community members to share with others who don’t have access.
A very brief snippets:
1. “we have large goals beyond saving SSFS from the brink of being turned into a golf course or mixed-use development”—plans for the endowment once immediate crisis is addressed
2. Plan to get pledges in writing and clarify the governance changes that will be tied to them
3. they are in ongoing negotiations with the BOT
4. they’ve posted their Overall Purpose, Core Values, and Short-Term Goals (for the week) and asked for patience as they sort out tech issues
This is just my own quick unofficial summary b/c I cannot cut-and-paste from my phone.

What’s the short term goal for the week? The longer this plays out, more and more teachers and families will enroll or sign contracts elsewhere. I’ve said this previously and I really hope SSFS makes it out on the other side but the trust has been lost. Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.

[Anonymous]

Will the coalition start by publishing ssfs’ last 10 years worth of 990s? THAT would be real change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Barrie is not doing fine. Check their 990 (public online). They are operating at a negative.

An independent school "operating at a negative" is not necessarily an indication of a systemic problem. Check out the 990 for Georgetown Day School (GDS) and it's considered one of the best schools on the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the coalition start by publishing ssfs’ last 10 years worth of 990s? THAT would be real change.

Entities that are not subject to the 990 filing requirement, like this School, are not going to have a Form 990 to publish.

[Anonymous]

Tuition in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County independent schools is lower than MoCo and DC. Doesn’t mean value/quality is different. Salaries may not be on par due to difference in cost of living.