During the busyness of the academic year, we crave the pause afforded by Winter Break. 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 in our students, our teaching, and our physical plant, but without moments of reflection, the "why" of this work can too easily be lost.
Why have we committed our lives to working at Proctor? Why have our parents chosen to entrust their children to us as educators? Why did our students fall in love with this school in the first place? The answers 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. We are not just a school, but a 501c3 not-for-profit business. We have thousands of constituents in our students, parents, alumni, and employees, with a roughly $23,000,000 budget to balance each year. As is the case with most tuition-driven independent schools (like Proctor), tuition revenue only covers a portion of total costs required to deliver our educational model. With an unrestricted annual giving goal of $1,600,000 for the 2021-2022 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.
As we approach the calendar year end, we encourage our alumni, parents, parents of alumni, and faculty and staff to support the Proctor Fund. The past twelve months have repeatedly required us to lean on our Proctor family for support, but just as the days have begun to get longer as we move beyond the winter solstice, our hope for 2022 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.
