For prep schools, some challenging economic lessons
Officials strive to help students, preserve mission
Eighth-grader Nima Olumi might have hit the nail on the head when he addressed his classmates during a promotion ceremony at Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill earlier this month.
The Newton 14-year-old, already a natural speaker, made a gentle joke in thanking an auditorium full of parents for their years of support.
“But also,’’ he said, “thank you for signing those big, hefty checks.’’
The laughter he enjoyed fit within a context: Finances are on the minds of officials at independent preparatory schools throughout the suburbs around Boston, as well as on the minds of the families that send their children to them.
With endowments ravaged by the stock market, from Chestnut Hill to Concord, from Milton to Andover, private prep schools are reacting boldly to the recession. Many are trying to hold down tuition increases and boost financial aid for families, even as some freeze faculty salaries and trim costs.
At Beaver Country Day, which relies little on its endowment for day-to-day costs, faculty will actually get a raise next year.
“Why are things going so well for us?’’ asked head of school Peter Hutton. “I think we have a little bit of a unique niche in the marketplace as the only progressive school for grades 6 to 12 in the area.’’
About 428 students are expected to attend Beaver next year - the same as this past year - primarily from Brookline, Wellesley, Newton, Boston, and Cambridge. Tuition will increase 5.5 percent, from $31,450 to $33,180, with about one-quarter of the school’s students receiving some financial aid.
Only 2 to 3 percent of Beaver’s operating budget comes from its endowment, so its 18 percent drop from $10.9 million to $8.9 million this fiscal year did not significantly alter budget forecasts, Hutton said.
The school also enjoyed good timing on a series of construction projects: an $8 million visual and performing arts center was completed in 2004 and a $7 million athletic facility in 2007. Both projects missed the economic meltdown, leaving Beaver Country Day presently free of major capital campaigns.
At Milton Academy, however, salaries are frozen, said spokeswoman Cathleen Everett, and there have been “modest staff cuts.’’
Milton’s endowment, which provides about 15 percent of the school’s operating budget, dipped 17 percent between July 2008 and April 2009, from $181 million to $150 million.
Next year, tuition at the high school level will be $43,225 for boarding students and $35,295 for day students. At the lower levels, tuition will range from $20,050 for kindergarten to $33,495 for grades 6 through 8.
Everett said enrollment will remain at about 975 students next year, the result of a “commitment to increase financial aid’’ and a busy recruiting season. About 30 percent of students receive financial aid.
In its effort to meet increasing financial need, Phillips Academy in Andover increased tuition by only 2 percent for next year, to $39,900 for boarders and $31,000 for day students, said Jane Fried, the school’s assistant head for enrollment, research, and planning, and also its dean of admission.
Amy Falls, Phillips Academy’s chief investment officer, would not project an endowment figure before the end of the fiscal year on June 30 but said the figure could be “potentially down in the high teens.’’ The school finished the 2008 fiscal year with an endowment of $792.9 million, counting on it for 28 percent of its operating budget.
Andover’s spokeswoman, Tracy Sweet, said the school is either freezing or cutting pay, renewing an emphasis on alumni support, and curtailing some building maintenance and upgrades. Thanks to long-term planning and fund-raising, however, it still plans to open its Addison Gallery of American Art within the year - a $14 million renovation and expansion.
At Concord Academy in Concord, international applications boosted rolls for the coming academic year, as did the school’s “more robust financial aid budget,’’ said spokeswoman Gail Friedman. About 25 percent of the school’s approximately 375 students receive aid.
Tuition at the school is $44,415 for boarding students and $35,915 for day students.
“We imagine that families were challenged, more than ever, to consider the effects of the economy on their local public schools and to weigh those effects against the investment in an independent school,’’ Friedman said. “Families remain committed to this kind of an education. But Concord Academy hasn’t been immune.’’
Endowment will fund about 12 percent of the annual operating budget. With a 22 percent drop, from $50 million at its highest point in 2007 to $39 million, came internal changes.
Staff and faculty salaries at Concord Academy are frozen for the next school year, every department reduced its budget, and through attrition and consolidation the equivalent of three full-time staff and 3.7 full-time faculty positions have been reduced. Tuition was increased 3.5 percent for next year.
“Off the table . . . was a large tuition increase, as we did notice that more families had more financial need than in years past,’’ Friedman said.
Of about 100 institutions that responded to a recent survey by the Association of Independent Schools in New England, nearly half said they expected enrollment to dip next school year. And 94 percent said they saw more requests for financial aid.
“Schools are doing whatever they can to meet that financial need,’’ said the association’s executive director, Steve Clem. “What I hear is [school officials] saying they’re going to ride this out . . . to adhere to the mission they’re trying to carry out.” 