"financial crisis"
In Any Market, the Down Portion of the Cycle Offers Buying Opportunities: Private Schools Are No Different- Carpe Diem
In a piece for SmartMoney (The Private School Pinch), Neil Parmer makes the case for the current private school admission cycle as a buyers opportunity. He doesn’t sugar coat the costs but he makes the case for- and provides ideas and examples- of the negotiating and buying opportunities available to parents. Boarding and private schools [...]
Read MoreParents and Schools Working to Maintain Private School Opportunities
Diana Costello has written a snapshot of the school and family sides of the private school admission process in the lower Hudson River Valley for the Journal News and LoHud.com (“Parents still paying up for private schools“). She chronicles the thinking and decisions of families as administrators work to keep their schools full and parents [...]
Read MoreShared Sacrifice: Jim Wickenden Echos the Call
Jim Wickenden, principal of his eponymous firm, Wickenden Associates called out school heads in the name of shared sacrifice in his blog post titled “Setting an Example.” Citing school cost cutting efforts, Jim notes the symbolic importance of school heads sharing in communal sacrifice and the message that a school heads public sacrifice would send. [...]
Read MoreGood Teaching is Committed Work
The New York Times ran a conversation (Teaching: No ‘Fallback’ Career) covering a subject that regularly comes up at our house and, currently seems to be on many peoples’ minds as they consider the stability of civil/public service careers- “maybe I’ll go into teaching?” In the framework of a struggling private sector, it’s a nice [...]
Read MoreSteady Application Numbers- Increased Aid Applications: Confirmation of what we’ve been hearing
Admission professionals have been telling us the same story throughout the school year. Applications and inquiries are steady. Financial aid requests are up. Using interviews at a few schools and with the National Association of Independent Schools, the New York Daily News ran a piece (Private schools see more financial aid requests during recession – [...]
Read MoreSt. Bede Academy Returns To Boarding Roots: A commitment to build two new dormitories
St. Bede Academy- a small Benedictine Catholic school in Peru, IL- broke ground this past Monday on a new building that will house female boarding students beginning with the 2009-2010 academic year. Reclaiming its boarding mission, St. Bede reopened its boarding department boarding department with the 2007-2008 school year, with four girls and eight boys [...]
Read MoreThe Public Versus Private Equation: Families Work to Reach Decisions
I read a couple of articles over the past few days that, combined, provide a good pictures of the thinking, priorities and sacrifices that families are grappling with in their ‘public or private’ school decisions. With a generally more conservative outlook about future earnings and home equity gone as a banking option families are struggling [...]
Read MoreBoarding School Podcast Sustainablity Series
In light of the economic downturn, school sustainability and adaptive strategies have been hot topics for a number of months. No one is spared from the realities of a shrinking economy- schools, families, students- we’re all impacted. To encourage a conversation about the options available to families and schools, AQ’s Boarding School Podcast hosted a [...]
Read MoreCommunity Consequences as Parents and Students Shift from Private to Public Schools
Rinker Buck of the Hartford Courant wrote an interesting piece this week, “Enrollment Shift Could Burden Farmington Valley Towns” in which he lays out the linkages between public and private school enrollment in private school dense areas. Looking at Hartford and its surrounding area, its private school density and the changing fortunes of private school [...]
Read MoreA Sad Passing: Pine Ridge School Announces June 5th Closing
We saw today in the Burlington Free Press that Pine Ridge School (Williston, VT) will close after graduation in June. Twenty faculty member will lose their positions; Pine Ridge will help students and their families find schools for the fall during these final months. Pine Ridge had restructured and changed its mission over the past [...]
Read MoreA School Administrator Talks About Paying for Prep School
As Brian mentioned in the post before this one, late last week I sat down with two financial aid experts for a podcast that examined financial aid in an economic downturn. My guests offered sound advice for families considering financial aid options. We’re always on the lookout for additional FA articles & resources and Rob [...]
Read MoreA Podcast Conversation About Affording Private School in an Economic Downturn
Addressing the admissions notification and financial aid season, we produced a podcast today discussing financial aid in tight times. Peter spoke with Martin Peyer, CEO of Tuition Data Services and Jamie Miller, Director of Financial Aid at the Blue Ridge School. They explored financial aid and tuition payment strategies for families as they make their [...]
Read MoreWashington, DC Catholic Schools Find Ways to Increase Financial Aid and Reach Out to Families
From today’s Washington Post (Aid Is Increased to Help Keep Struggling Families From Removing Students)- with experience working through difficult situations over the past decade- declining enrollment, increasing costs and families electing non-catholic education options, the Catholic schools of the DC area are moving quickly and decisively to help families seeking financial aid. As Karen [...]
Read MoreExeter Addresses Lower Endowment
In just about any other year, you’d think it would be nuts for a money manager/management team to get congratulated for having an endowment fund lose 22% of its value. 2008 was no run of the mill year for market and endowment declines. Phillips Exeter Academy‘s endowment managers held loses to 22% beating the S&P [...]
Read MorePiney Woods School Faculty Practice Common Sacrifice
Faculty at the nation’s only predominately African-American boarding school have taken an across the board 2% pay cut to help the school maintain its mission and program in the face shrinking giving and budget cuts. School president Reginald Nichols has taken a 5% pay cut. We advocated this measure over layoffs in a post on [...]
Read More