While never really unexpected, there is always a little sticker shock that comes along with the annual re-enrollment letter and its accompanying note about tuition. Tuition is expensive, and a 5% increase certainly doesn’t ease things at a time when jobs are scarce and nest eggs are down.
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions, and some answers. As a reminder, if your family is having any difficulty with tuition, please contact the business office to start the confidential and informal process of working out options that will allow you to remain at the Day School. The goal this year, as it was last, is to keep our community whole.
Why does tuition have to go up so much?
There are two main reasons that tuition goes up: increases in personnel costs and rising spending on discounted tuition. The board and senior leadership of the School face the balancing act of weighing tuition increases against stripping down programs and projects. They do their best to hold down costs for parents while keeping the curriculum as rich and full for the students as possible.
Why do we give our faculty a salary increase when many in our community have lost jobs or experienced a reduction in income?
Faculty salaries are structured on an apprenticeship model. Over a 30-year career, a teacher’s wage may actually not even keep pace with inflation. Teachers do not receive large salary increases in strong economic periods and never receive bonuses for outstanding performance. It is also important that salaries be competitive with our peer schools so that SFDS can attract and retain the best teachers both in the Bay Area and nationwide.
If teachers are only getting 3% raises, why is tuition up 5%?
Personnel spending accounts for 67% of the School’s budget and while raises are fairly stable at 3% a year, benefits are rising at a pace of 10-15% a year, driven primarily by increases in health insurance costs. That, combined with the added expense for discounted tuition, accounts for the difference.
How much is Discounted Tuition up?
The budget for discounted tuition is up 23% over last year and is 45% higher than it was in 2007-2008 (before the economy faltered). The School has maintained a policy that no family should leave because of financial difficulty. That has meant that 97 students (or 25% of our student body) are receiving tuition discounts this year, up from 84 last year and 75 in the 2007-2008 school year. The projected increase in discounted tuition for 2010-2011 is 6% over this year’s budget.
What about all that spending on the new Learning Resource Program?
Right now the increased costs in LRP are entirely funded by special contributions from a small number of donors and can only be used for that program. There is no impact on tuition from the expansion of the LRP program.
What are our peer schools doing?
Schools aren’t allowed to discuss tuition increases among themselves in advance, so we do not yet know what other schools are doing for next year. However, over the last six years, our peer schools have raised tuition an average of 5-7% (SFDS averaged 5.5%). For 2009-2010, tuition increases ranged between 3.5% and 6.5% with a $1300 range between the highest and lowest. The board of SFDS tries to maintain predictability for our families by staying in the 5-7% range and avoiding dramatic increases in any one year.
Aren’t there other cuts we can make?
The 2010-2011 budget is strictly a maintenance budget. The school has made cuts and is holding the line on spending. The school is putting off any new facilities projects and just keeping a small reserve to fund any unexpected repairs.
