Dear BPC Families,
In keeping with our tradition of updating you on happenings in our community, we wanted to pass along some information about Windrush School. As many of you have heard, or read last week on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, Windrush is experiencing severe financial hardship. At present, Windrush is in the midst of an emergency fundraising drive in hopes of keeping the school open until the end of the school year. Windrush families and faculty have met frequently this week, and the Windrush community is feeling understandably vulnerable.
As we became aware of this unfortunate situation, the BPC community immediately reached out to our friends at Windrush. We continue to be in contact with their administration and have been offering our support and assistance.
Given the financial difficulties currently being experienced by Windrush and a number of other local private schools, it would be quite normal for you to ask about the financial stability of our school. The good news is that BPC has never been financially stronger! Although other independent schools have suffered during the recession because of declining enrollment, total enrollment at BPC has increased every year since the 2005-2006 academic year. And applications to BPC are climbing at a gratifying rate.
In addition to benefiting from climbing enrollment, our school’s financial condition has been bolstered by the careful management of our Finance Committee and Board of Directors. The Finance Committee is composed of members of the Board of Directors, and other individuals connected to the school who have deep experience in business and finance. The Finance Committee is led by Gary Wong, Board Chairman Eric Sullivan, and former Board Chairman David Kellert. The Finance Committee works with Bill Shea to ensure that our finances are conservatively managed and well positioned to protect our school’s long-term legacy of success and prudence. Unlike most other private schools, we have been extremely conservative about borrowing money. The school’s debt load (in relation to its size) is one of the lowest of any local private school. Having less debt than other schools is one of the reasons BPC is able to charge lower tuition than other similar private schools. Our conservative debt load also makes BPC unlikely to encounter the financial difficulties experienced by other private schools.
In addition to prudent financial management and climbing enrollment, BPC’s financial health has been helped by your contributions to our Annual Fund and support of key fundraisers like the Spring Soiree. This support has helped us maintain our outstanding faculty and retain the families that make BPC such a unique and wonderful school. Another contributor to BPC’s strong financial health is that this summer BPC was able to refinance the small amount of debt it does have into a more desirable loan package. We are grateful to Gary Wong and Bill Shea for their leadership in this important part of our financial strength.
We feel that being candid with families about BPC’s finances is an important part of the openness that we try to bring to all aspects of the educational process. So if you’d ever like to talk more with us about our financial health, we’re happy to discuss this topic. Also, each year we host an evening gathering we call our “State Of The School” meeting (scheduled for Thursday, January 26, at 7pm) where we provide an in-depth analysis of our school’s structure, Board Committees, financial health, and our overall vision for the future of BPC.
As the Windrush challenges evolve, undoubtedly BPC administrators will be talking with members of the independent school community regularly. In the meantime, please reach out in support to anyone you know who is a member of the Windrush community. We are all united in wanting strong schools and outstanding teachers for our community and for our children.
Sincerely,
John Carlstroem Eric Sullivan
Head of School Chairman, BPC Board of Directors
