Mid-Year Message from Nancy Starmer, Head of School

January 27, 2012

Dear Friend,

I am writing this annual “State of the School” letter shortly after our first ever all-school Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. Over six hundred students, faculty, and staff spread out to do service throughout Bucks and Philadelphia Counties this past Monday at thirty-two different sites. One group remained on campus where they did a variety of projects for the school and for local charities, and another went to Bethlehem, PA, the hometown of one of our faculty members, to join him in the city’s annual MLK Day march and parade.

It was gratifying to hear the responses of our students at the meeting for worship that marked the end of the day. Typical of many of the comments, one senior said, “I’ve appreciated and have benefitted from the workshops George School has done in the past in celebration of MLK Day. Even so, there was something very special about the whole school doing service together this year. Getting out of the classroom, going to places we’ve never been before, doing hands-on work with our advisors and collection-mates and administrators, working with people from all over the city in a collective day of service all helped to make the day feel bigger than ourselves. It was also a chance to put what we’ve been learning about Dr. King and his commitments into action.”

This senior’s comments reveal students’ openness to new experiences. These are characteristics that have been evident in a number of areas of school life this year. Reflections by students in meeting for worship have been especially poignant, demonstrating over and over again how much our students care about others, how deeply they value family and community, how sincerely they seek to understand their world and their place in it, and how committed they are to “letting their lives speak.”

The Class of 2012 is right in the middle of the college process and last year’s seniors have been back to campus recently to catch up with former teachers and friends. Members of the Class of 2011 with whom I spoke all reported being happy and engaged in their new schools and, most importantly, feeling very well prepared for college work. As I reflect on those conversations, I’ve been struck with the fact that while this is always an anxious time for seniors (and their families), George School students manage to maintain a remarkably balanced perspective.

As I think about the 2011-12 school year, then, I want to express my appreciation for the remarkable aspects of this community and my gratitude to all of you for sending us such thoughtful, open, engaged young people.

The energies of George School’s administration this year have been focused on completing the implementation of our 2009 Strategic Plan. Most of the goals delineated in the five-year plan are well underway. In the area of educational program, our academic leadership team is developing a mechanism for assessing the curricular changes that were implemented in the fall of 2007. We continue to critically look at our academic program with an eye to make continued improvements each year. In addition, a variety of professional development initiatives are enhancing the classroom experiences for students and are being shared within academic departments and in interdisciplinary sessions across the faculty.

The Diversity Oversight Committee of the George School Committee (GSC) took over responsibility for strategic goals in this area, which included gaining a better understanding of how members of our current community define diversity, recommending goals to ensure that George School retains its distinction as an inclusive educational community, and examining ways in which we manage our diversity to the benefit of all students. Our international population represents the newest area of growth in this arena. An ad-hoc committee is currently exploring how well we serve this population, as well as how well our international students are integrated into the larger George School community. Additionally, this group will identify ways we ensure that all students get the most out of being part of a community that includes students from forty countries as well as students from a rich variety of backgrounds, races, religions, and ethnicities within the United States.

We are also making very good headway at addressing the physical plant goals in our Strategic Plan. A great deal of work has already been accomplished, but there is still much to do. This summer we are hoping to bring air conditioning to the dining room in Main building and to renovate three science labs. It is our sincere hope that by this time next year, completed plans for a new Fitness and Athletics Center will be ready to unveil to all of you, and that work on both that facility and our Equestrian facilities might commence as soon as spring 2013.

Consistent with our environmental stewardship goals, these new facilities will be LEED certified whenever possible, and we are holding ourselves accountable to the highest environmental standards in our planning. Students have been working hard to meet our environmental goals as well. TERRA, the student environmental club, has focused its efforts on building rain gardens and raising awareness of energy use and other environmental issues throughout the community. Students have been crucial to the success of our efforts to build appreciation for nutritious food and healthy lifestyles among members of the community as well.

There are two significant financial goals in our Strategic Plan, the first concerning faculty compensation and the second addressing long-term financial sustainability. In the first area, last spring the George School Committee made a commitment to bring George School salaries closer to the top quartile in market comparisons in order to continue to attract and retain the highest caliber of faculty and staff. Thanks to a recent bequest to the school, we believe we will accomplish this. At a time when we are facing an increased number of faculty retirements (as you recall, last year we had five), this commitment is especially important.

Questions of long-term financial sustainability are perhaps the most complex of our strategic planning tasks. Like independent schools and colleges across the country, George School continues to struggle to meet rising costs while making ourselves affordable to a broad spectrum of students and families. For many years now we’ve been leaders in the amount of financial aid that we offer our families. Each year we offer students from across the socioeconomic spectrum the opportunity to attend George School because we believe it enhances their lives and our community. I am particularly proud that the George School Committee continues to make it a priority to meet the changing financial needs of George School families that have faced real hardship over the past several years.

At the same time, we work hard to attract the support of donors who can contribute to our endowment, to manage our endowment in the most responsible way possible, and to increase contributions to our Annual Fund and capital projects.

We strive to keep tuitions for full-pay families in a competitive range with our peer schools. In setting our tuitions for next year—tuition for boarding students for 2012-13 will be $48,910, and tuition for day students will be $32,860—I am grateful that we have again been able to meet that commitment.

As you can imagine, we wouldn’t be able to enter into planning like this, to maintain all that is special about a George School education, or to continue to adapt to the needs of the twenty-first century without the support of the generations of George School graduates, parents, and friends who have contributed their time, their input to our planning efforts, and their gifts to our Annual Fund and capital appeals. Your sons and daughters, and all of the faculty and staff at George School, are the beneficiaries of these gifts. Every individual who contributes to George School, no matter how large or small their contribution, makes a difference in the education we offer here. All of us at George School are blessed to have such a strong and generous community of parents, students, and teachers.

With all good wishes for a happy and healthy New Year,


Nancy Starmer
Head of School