Reason #2: Bricks and Endowments, Then People
This is the second reason in a series entitled “Why I Quit Teaching in Private Schools.”
Private schools are currently caught in what I see as a bricks and endowment arms race. A new athletic field house at one school begets a similar one at the next. When one school runs a highly publicized capital campaign, all the others scramble and panic to launch their own. Result 1: our campuses more closely resemble medium-sized universities complete with state of the art athletic centers, science labs that suggest we are mapping the human genome, drop-dead performing arts centers, and astro-turfed training facilities that more closely resemble NFL training headquarters than spaces where 14 year olds have track practice. Result 2: Perhaps more tedious, the “campaign” never takes a day off; we now have advancement offices, many that now resemble South Asian call centers, that never leave anyone alone…ever. One campaign just bleeds into the next, clogging everyone’s mailbox, inbox, voice messaging system, and nightmares 24/7/52/365. If I were a rich person, which I am most certainly not for a number of easily identifiable reasons, I think I would avoid attending any school events for fear the head of advancement might be there.
Here is some perspective: one school of which I know simultaneously executed a $20 million dollar science wing building project AND a $100 million dollar endowment/annual fund-boosting blowout blitz, both with great fanfare and success. This was truly an amazing feat in the world of private education, especially for a school that serves roughly 900 students K-12. I am also acquainted with a school that has been building nonstop for fifteen years: aquatics center, completely new middle school, completely new pre-K facility, two primary wing overhauls, and are currently beginning a complete upper school overhaul. Again, this is a school of around 900 students.
What a buzz kill I must be, right? What’s to hate about state of the art facilities and lots of investment money to draw from to assist with operating costs?
Dirty Secret: We are over-building and uber-fundraising in unsustainable ways that are distracting us from our true mission. We have lost sight of what we are supposed to be doing: educating young people in personal, relevant, and meaningful ways so that they may be the most compassionate, loving, productive, bright, and successful people they can be.
Do parents need a 5000 square foot home to raise great kids? Of course they do not. In the same vein, do our kids learn better or more in spacious, vaulting glass solariums clad in copper and stainless steel?
Who is that building for, the kids or the adults?
The harder question here might be this: Does learning actually suffer when we prioritize shock and awe building over internal program quality and targeted support of the people facilitating and engaging in that learning?
What of endowments? If you are really into this stuff, be sure to check out the article “How Much Endowment is Enough?” on the National Association of Independent School’s website. My understanding of endowments is cursory, at best, but the basic assumption is that the more money a school has in its endowment, the more money they can use to fund scholarships and improve programs. Sounds great. However consider these numbers: according to NAIS, in the last ten years the number of students at independent schools, which does not count Catholic schools, jumped only 11.6 percent. But, the average endowment per student, adjusted for inflation, increased by 93.5 percent.
One more stats blast: according to the New York Times article “Elite Prep Schools, College-Sized Endowments,” the average expenditures per student for public schools rose 28 percent, to $8,809 in five years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Contrastingly, there was a 40 percent increase, to $20,233, for independent secondary day schools, and a 42.8 percent increase, to $14,300, for each elementary student at day schools in that time period.
Where is all that money being spent? How much is enough? I love the fact that I get to drop my own children off each day at beautiful campuses that are visually inspiring. But, what might we be focusing on if we weren’t so distracted by the blinding gleam coming off the new ice arena? Teaching and learning perhaps?
In the same article, Exeter Academy’s admissions director Michael Gary clarifies, “Private school is a luxury, and rich families want the best facilities. All too often fund-raising is about the buildings and the sports facilities. The schools need them to attract the wealthy families.” Hmmm.
My title is Bricks and Endowments, Then People, so I must end with the kicker for me. One year at the NAIS National Conference I found myself sharing coffee with a number of division directors like myself who all seemed to be wearing troubled, blank stares at breakfast. As we started chatting and venting a bit, I realized we were all struggling with versions of the same burden: we were all being asked to trim operating budgets, and possibly even people, in the coming months. This included trying to do more with less, thus increasing teaching and coaching loads of existing faculty members, many of whom were already working 60+ hours a week, instead of hiring much needed additional faculty and staff. FTEs, according to our business offices, were just too darn expensive.
In short, we were considering cutting needed staff while raising and spending record amounts of money. Ugh.
Independent schools have always been, at their core, about relationships and people, not bricks and endowment numbers. It is certainly nice to have beautiful buildings and lots of interest money to draw upon, but as soon as people inside those buildings begin feeling less known, appreciated, and loved because we are fixated on building, cold-calling, cultivating, and marketing, we have lost sight of the mission.
Smart and sustained growth strategies are the answer here. There are entire books written about the topic and specialists who can help all our schools do this intelligently and strategically while still maintaining inspiring, beautiful campuses and meeting our fiduciary responsibilities. I would suggest starting with Dr. Richard Soghoian’s Mind the Gap! An Insider’s Irreverent Look at Private School Finances and Management.
Don’t believe the hype, I say. Let’s not forget what really matters at school: student learning.
Next post: Reason #3 The College Placement Obsession (or Where Innovation Goes to Die)
