During the busyness of the academic year, we crave the pause offered during Winter Break where campus is quiet and we can refocus on the 30,000 foot perspective of why we exist as a school. We know our daily work is valuable, we see incremental progress toward our goals, and we see tangible student growth, but without moments of reflection, the context and "why" of this work can too easily be lost. 

Our hope during this break is that we allow ourselves the pause in our lives to recharge and refocus on why we do what we do. Why have we committed our lives to working at a boarding school? Why have our parents chosen to entrust their children to us at Proctor? Why did our students fall in love with this school in the first place? The answer to each of these questions find common ground in the unique way Proctor seeks to fulfill its mission: through relationships with each other. This is the gift of Proctor; a gift that keeps giving as long as we nurture those friendships with our colleagues, alumni, parents, and students.

Proctor’s financial model is complex, and while our primary perception of ourself is as a school, we are also a business that has thousands of customers and a roughly $23,000,000 budget to balance each year. As is the case with most tuition-driven independent schools (like Proctor), tuition only covers a portion of total costs required to deliver the educational model. With an unrestricted annual giving goal of $1,550,000 for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the Proctor Fund represents roughly 7% of the school’s overall operating budget. We rely on the generosity and commitment of donors to bridge this gap between tuition revenue and operating expenses, and as we approach the calendar year end, we encourage our alumni, parents, parents of alumni, and faculty and staff to support the Proctor Fund.

During a season of gift giving to loved ones, we recognize the gift Proctor continues to be in each of our lives. The past twelve months have repeatedly required us to lean on our Proctor family, but just as the days have begun to get longer as we move beyond the winter solstice, our hope for 2020 grows brighter each day. Thank you to everyone who has chosen to be a part of giving the gift of Proctor to us this year. Hopefully you each feel as fortunate to be a part of the Proctor family as we do.