Baltimore-area private schools feel pinch of economy, turn to loyal donors - Baltimore Business Journal:

tatyanagepoji.blogspot.com
But this year as their parents tightentheie families’ budgets, a third will enroll at the state’s flagshio school instead of heading to the likesw of Vassar or It may not sound like such a sacrifice, but schook leaders say it shows how the economic downturn has hurt privatee school students and their families. Requests for financiakl aid are up, budgets have been trimmed and annuak fundraising goals have become Two schools haveannounced closures, or are on the brinmk of them.
The schools have had to work to find ways to keepstudentse enrolled, and some have found themselveas a more difficult sell to prospective students, with theirt annual price tags upwards of But several heads of school said that whils they are seeing familiea reacting to the recession, it often doesn’t include scaling back on their children’s education. Loyal donors have stuco around. “We are impacted,” said Monica Gillespie, head of schoopl at St. Paul’s School for “We’ve got to At St.
Paul’s that has meant spending less on thingxs like foodand events, but there have been no Belt tightening wasn’t enough for at least two which told parents they would be closinfg their doors for good at the end of the school , which was acquired by in March, had plannes to continue operating through the 2009-2010 school year but won’yt have the 85 students it needed to do so, said Jemicy Head of School Ben Shifrin. Ruxton Head of Schooll Stephen Barker declined tobe Jemicy, which offers schooling for children with language learnint disabilities, will move its upper schoolk to Ruxton’s campus in Owings Mills by fall.
The Catholicd Community School of South Baltimore also said this springf that this would be its last school School officials said declining enrollment pushed their operating budget intothe red. Many schoolzs have received slight or significant increases in requestse forfinancial aid, and they are coming at a time when annuao fundraising is slower. Schools fund their day-to-day operations, as well as programs like financialp aid, through a combination of tuition endowment interest and individual All three sources have been crimped as stocl market declines and layoffs have made it more difficul to affordprivate schooling.
At Friendsd School, about 60 families already at the schoopl applied for aid for the first time for the comingacademicx year, said Head of School Matthew About 250 of the school’s 1,000 students receivs financial aid for annual tuition bille of $20,175. Micciche expects the number of those receivint aid to go up but not all of those who applie will qualifyfor aid, he said. The increase will mean less monety is available fornew however, he said. Admissions applicationsw have fallen slightly for next year but the qualityg of applicants isstill strong, he said, making for some difficul t choices.
Other schools haven’t seen a drop-off in applications and are preparing to accommodate a full slate of studentse inthe fall. At , a K-12 school in Owingd Mills, classes for the fall are saidAnita Hilson, the school’z admissions director. But the schoopl is giving out more money to help keepstudentsw enrolled. McDonogh is the eighth-most expensive privates school in the region witha $22,520 annuak bill per student. The school has a specia endowed fund to provide loans to familiexs in need of financial aid aside from Though thefund isn’t new, it has been getting more requests for the money, Hilson said. The school expectse to loan $500,000 from the fund this year.
Certaibn schools have been able to make up some of theird funding gaps by tapping one of their most valuableresourcesa — the pockets of loyall alumni. At St. Paul’s School for Girls, for the school is within reach ofits $1 million fundraisinv goal for the year. It has gottenm there through a 77 percent increase in the number of donorz to itsannual campaign, Gillespie That shows that while many are givingg smaller amounts, more donors are recognizinv the importance of supporting their school during the toug h economic time, she said.
Alumnae support has helped turn thingsx aroundfor , an all-girls boarding and day high schoopl in Glencoe that is the second-most expensive schook in the region. Tuition is not counting boarding costs, for the roughly 100 of 130 totapl students who liveon campus. Formee Head of School George Swope told parentse last year that if the school did notraiswe $20 million, it would have to close. But afterr changes that included bringing alumna Taylort Smith on as head of school and formere Head of School Holly Rogers asa part-time board member, things are looking up.
Facultg received raises this year, and the school has already surpassedlast year’s fundraising total of It is nearing $800,000, Associate Head of Schoolo Parny Hagerman said. Officials are expectin 20 new day studentsthis fall, compared to just one in fall and they plan to add sixthu and seventh grade day classes in the 2010-2011 school year. Gillespie said she has also found thatat St. alumni have found a way to support the institutions that are closestto them. At Friends, Miccichw said that many families seem to be findingt a way to come up with tuition moneydespite parents’ layoffs or stock market losses.
“The education of their children remaina a sufficiently high prioritythat they’ll sacrificse other things rather than sacrifice that,” he said.