An Investment

No private school can remain open without being able to attract students. Preferably, students who can pay the required tuition. Families able to afford the $8000+ required each year to attend our school have high expectations concerning the quality of our facilities and programs. To stay open, we need to offer a quality of education that exceeds what a student can receive at the local public school. The 100+ feeder junior high schools that our student population comes from also feed into 20+ public high schools. Some of the public school options are unacceptable to our families, so they choose us. A few of the public schools our students reject in favor of us are truly bad; some to the point that a parent would be neglectful if they sent their child there and could afford not to. Others are among the best in the state. To compete with the best public schools we have built and maintained a modern, up-to-date facility, and offer an outstanding curriculum including extensive access to advanced placement courses. Our fine arts program is probably one of the best in the country, and our standardized test score averages are always in the top 5% nationwide.

Assuming that the average tuition for the last 4 years was $8000 and last year we graduated 320 seniors, parents spent a little more that $10 million total for last years graduates to attend. A local public school spends $14000+ on each student, adding up to a potential cost of almost $18 million had our students attended there. The local public school district that includes 4 high schools proudly announced that their 2100 graduates earned $5 million in scholarships, at a cost of $110 million for 4 years of education. Our last graduating class earned $13+ million in scholarships, about 30% more than the cost of their education. I mentioned before that I had a child who attended the school where I teach. Her 4 years of high school cost between $25-$28 thousand including books and fees. The scholarship she earned for college will add up to more than $50,000 in 4 years. A high quality high school education is an investment.

All this being said, last weekend we had our annual open house for prospective students. The open house is our opportunity to “show off” for the community; let families know what programs we offer for their children. Current students conducted tours of the building for the 429 families who visited us that day. Another 20 or so families toured on their own without a guide. The numbers are up and the administration is happy. We accept about 350 freshmen each year and usually have between 500 and 600 students take the entrance exam. This number has been over 700 and as low as 450 in my memory.

My wife and I had dinner with friends the evening before. The husband is a chemistry teacher, like myself, and once taught with me. His wife is a grade school teacher at one of our local parochial feeder schools. She commented at dinner that she had never been in our building and wondered if I would give her a tour sometime. I suggested that she come to open house and offered to personally show her around. She was amazed at our facilities. She had attended a public high school and always thought that our facilities would be inferior. Her husband left us 16 years ago for a public school job and more money. He reports that he is now ready to return, even if it means a cut in pay.