Trustees Decide Budget for 2015-16
Due to a well-budgeted and cost-controlled year, the Academy Board of Trustees have decided to increase faculty and employee salaries 2.2 percent across the board while changing neither day-student nor boarding tuitions. Overall, the total approximate increase in the Academy salary budget for the 2015-2016 school year is 2.8 percent.
“Because we live in a lap of luxury, we should strive to share our amazing wealth with the larger population. We have done so in the past and present by providing scholarship and financial aid.”
Each year, the trustees discuss and amend the following year’s tuition, executive compensation and overall budget. As is the custom, this year, Principal Tom Hassan—with the help of the Chief Financial Officer David Hanson, Human Resources (HR) and other members of the financial team—developed a budget, which included recommendations for employees’ annual salary adjustments. Additionally, the Finance and HR teams suggested additional modifications to the overall budget due to reviews of market conditions and other factors. The Trustees’ Finance Committee and the entire board of 10 discussed and voted on the proposed changes.
The trustees achieved their main goal of holding tuition steady for the 2015-2016 school year, thereby increasing the Academy’s affordability to families. Nicie Panetta, the President of the Trustees, said, “This decision reflected an admirable job by the school of containing cost increases throughout the Academy.”
Most students and families have responded positively. As tuition can sometimes put huge pressure on families, many are grateful that an increase in tuition is out of the question. For some, the decision to not increase tuition will allow them to spend the remaining money elsewhere.
For lower Caroline Davis, the tuition leveling means that her family will not have to deal with the added stress of increasing tuition costs.
“I’m really glad that the Academy has planned the budget so that students and their families do not have to pay an increased tuition. I am personally grateful because next year, my sister will be attending the Academy as a new prep, which is an even greater cost to my family,” Davis said. “With my sister and me both attending the Academy next year, the trustees keeping tuition to a minimum is especially meaningful and alleviates some pressure.”
Prep Bridgette Han is also content with the trustees’ decision, not only for herself, but for students with greater financial difficulties. “This decision is most helpful to students who just miss the benefits of financial aid and therefore struggle with tuition payments. These students have to pay the entire tuition cost every year in order to be a part of the community they love,” Han said. “I’m glad the trustees are making this desire of students as feasible and affordable as they can.”
In addition, the Academy’s containment of cost during the past year has enabled the school to reward faculty with a 2.2 percent salary increase across the board. Panetta further detailed how the Principal and his staff came to this conclusion.
“Principal Hassan and his staff determined that this was an appropriate increase, based on reference data that included a year-over-year consumer price index increase of 1.3 percent, last year’s increase and surveys of how our salaries currently compare to our peer group schools and other local employers,” Panetta said.
Hassan also is pleased with the Academy’s management job in the past year and is thrilled that the budgeting will benefit both students and faculty simultaneously. “I’m delighted that the trustees and administration were able to offer salary increases while maintaining zero increase in tuition,” he said. “This is a testament to good budget management throughout the Academy.”
The Academy has always attempted to maintain a high level of pay for faculty in comparison to other prep schools. With the opportunity to reward faculty even more, the trustees were sure to take it. Faculty are more than content with the trustees’ decision on salaries and the Academy’s budgeting schedule, as most are already happy with their current salaries.
English instructor Duncan Holcomb said, "I think that we are very well compensated. I don’t think there are any prep school teachers in our country who have better compensated salary package than we do."
Holcomb continued to add that he believes the focus in increasing salaries should not be on faculty, but rather the staff who are paid less.
“We are well paid. We are not underpaid in any way, shape or form. If we don’t get more or less, that’s fine with me,” Holcomb said. “What I think is that there are [other] people who are underpaid.”
Holcomb believes another focus is to continue to provide the financial aid for the students who need it. “Because we live in a lap of luxury, we should strive to share our amazing wealth with the larger population. We have done so in the past and present by providing scholarship and financial aid,” he said.
He supports the Academy’s system of abiding by the motto non-sibi, both financially and non-financially, and wishes that they continue to do so. Overall, the trustees’ decision to increase the salary has seemed to have a positive impact on the Academy community, and it foreshadows many more promising changes to come in the upcoming academic year.