SSFS Will Stay Open

[Anonymous]

The donor is still the only reason the school is able to open next year. I wonder why they are doing this if historically they’ve never been a large donor. It’s nice of them though, I just wish I knew why!

[Anonymous]

The summary is very thorough and is what I took away, as well.

After they named the “angel donor” I am familiar with who the person is and their relation to student(s) at SSFS. I am confused about the 15 million as a pp said. Is the angel donor guaranteeing 15 million and there was a separate 5 million received last week?

I can say that nothing in that zoom inspired me so if I were a parent on the fence, there’s no way I’d be convinced. I can also 100% confirm that more than one person who spoke so lovingly on that zoom about SSFS also toured other schools last week. So are they just giving lip service?

I guess with 232 students you don’t need a ton of teachers so I wouldn’t stress about the faculty who are walking

[Anonymous]

There is a specific person on the Coalition who is currently collecting the rest of the pledges. All those who pledged got an email with instructions on how to actually give the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is that 5M going to cover the next three years and low enrollment? And the loan that’s due?

It sounds like 5M is just the first piece they have so far. More is coming in. The coalition started collecting everyone's pledges last week

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the school went from 720 to 620 to 460. I know they blamed doge. But really, I sure hope they’re keeping track why so many ppl left. As someone said earlier if it’s something external at least a couple other area schools would be closing too. But it’s only ssfs. Talking about the schools problems makes ppl upset, but I hope the IS paying attention, does fix the real reasons behind the mad exodus. Then the school can hope to attract and keep students again. Angek donors can’t do it all.

The school was never 720. More like 695 at peak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the school went from 720 to 620 to 460. I know they blamed doge. But really, I sure hope they’re keeping track why so many ppl left. As someone said earlier if it’s something external at least a couple other area schools would be closing too. But it’s only ssfs. Talking about the schools problems makes ppl upset, but I hope the IS paying attention, does fix the real reasons behind the mad exodus. Then the school can hope to attract and keep students again. Angek donors can’t do it all.

The school was never 720. More like 695 at peak.

Sorry typo. It went from 700 to 620 to 460 is what they said. However I don’t know why you’re nitpicking. My point was they lost a ton and it wasn’t doge cause no other school is going thru this right now. So if the school wants to recover I hope they are taking to heart why all these ppl left and fix the problem.

Besides doge stuff didn’t even start till Feb after return contracts were due. Surely they weren’t sitting at 600 and then had a mass withdrawal after that which landed them at 460, which only then you could blame on doge. But I really doubt that’s how they lost so many.

Maybe they don’t want to be transparent about why ppl are leaving. But I hope they’re honest at least with themselves and course correct. That’s the only way they’ll retain ppl and attract new ppl. Become a school ppl want to pay for.

[Anonymous]

At a school of 700 they had roughly 130 staff. So if they end up at 250 they’ll need about 47 (let’s round to 50) staff. Will the donor pay to keep the rest available until when the student body increases or are we looking at a layoff of about 80 ppl?

[Anonymous]

Did they cover how the grades will look with the lower numbers? Are they combining graces? I didn’t hear them address that. With 97 in US that’s barely 25 per grade. Though probably it’s more skewed toward junior and seniors. Granted they might pick up more after today but I don’t think they’ll end up at 70 per grade which was the typical US class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a school of 700 they had roughly 130 staff. So if they end up at 250 they’ll need about 47 (let’s round to 50) staff. Will the donor pay to keep the rest available until when the student body increases or are we looking at a layoff of about 80 ppl?

I'm sure they'll be looking at that at the end of the week when the teacher contracts come back. No doubt some will leave.

[Anonymous]

67 kids in MS … there were more than that in one grade just two years ago.

I found the meeting to be so disingenuous. It’s not DOGE. It’s not the election. When you point the finger you have three fingers pointing back at you. It’s not just one member of the board who TRIED to sound contrite. That was pathetic, at best, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:67 kids in MS … there were more than that in one grade just two years ago.

I found the meeting to be so disingenuous. It’s not DOGE. It’s not the election. When you point the finger you have three fingers pointing back at you. It’s not just one member of the board who TRIED to sound contrite. That was pathetic, at best, too.

Agreed! And he didn’t really sound all that contrite. I found his demeanor to be very odd.

This meeting did not move the needle in a positive way. There was so much magical thinking going on tonight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:67 kids in MS … there were more than that in one grade just two years ago.

I found the meeting to be so disingenuous. It’s not DOGE. It’s not the election. When you point the finger you have three fingers pointing back at you. It’s not just one member of the board who TRIED to sound contrite. That was pathetic, at best, too.

67 means about 22 per grade. 97 in high school is about 25 per grade. My guess is most will be on the higher grade side with few in 6th/9th

And then 68 in LS is barely 10 per grade.

The angel donor can make up the deficit but the school won’t feel vibrant without the kids. That’s the sad reality.

[Anonymous]

We all know it’s goi g to be a bit different the next couple years, but with more money and a different board there is no reason the school can’t thrive again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We all know it’s goi g to be a bit different the next couple years, but with more money and a different board there is no reason the school can’t thrive again.

If they can stop blaming doge, the birth rate, natural disasters, and take a good look in the mirror to fix the real reasons people aren’t paying to come here, they can thrive again after probably 2-3 difficult years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know it’s goi g to be a bit different the next couple years, but with more money and a different board there is no reason the school can’t thrive again.

If they can stop blaming doge, the birth rate, natural disasters, and take a good look in the mirror to fix the real reasons people aren’t paying to come here, they can thrive again after probably 2-3 difficult years.

They're probably doing that behind the scenes so as not to air out people's dirty laundry for all to see.