BRIMMER ANNOUNCES $26M CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

The Building Our Tomorrow campaign launches with $25M already committed.

By Elizabeth Smith P‘17, Director of Development

On May 10, the Brimmer community took part in a special day of celebration to kick off the Building Our Tomorrow campaign for Brimmer, with students and faculty from all three divisions of the School participating. During that celebration, Head of School Judy Guild shared some exciting news: “To date, we have made incredible progress,” she announced. “We have secured commitments of more than $25 million and look forward to continuing to make progress so that we can begin the building process.”

The students enjoyed seeing the new building plans, hearing about the future, and receiving Building Our Tomorrow swag at their assembly!

The Board of Trustees approved the Building Our Tomorrow campaign in October of 2022. This campaign will fund both a new Recreation & Wellness Center and The Endowment for Faculty Compensation & Teaching Excellence.

It has already funded the Mugar Family Playground & Outdoor Learning Space as well as the Cummings Hall 4/5 Classroom Renovations. Addressing key challenges identified in the strategic plan, this campaign ensures a future of continued excellence for Brimmer as we emphasize an investment in health, wellness, faculty, and endowment.

Recreation & Wellness Facilities

The physical spaces where our community collaborates, competes, plays, and cares for one another support the educational, social, emotional, and physical needs of our students. Health and wellness have long been a focus in all three divisions of the School, and the global pandemic revealed that while progress has been made on many fronts, significant investments are required in order to realize the School’s vision for excellence. This includes well-designed facilities that will elevate physical education, athletics, fitness, wellness programming, community gathering space, and additional classrooms.

Recreation & Wellness Center

The existing 8,880 sq. ft. Thompson Gymnasium was built in 1972 and houses one court, a limited spectator area, a small fitness center, and inadequate locker rooms. It also lacks acceptable storage and appropriate spaces for Lower School Physical Education and gross motor activities. After the 2021 Campus Master Planning process with architects from Sasaki, Brimmer engaged the team to envision a 26,000 sq. ft. Recreation & Wellness Center. The new gymnasium will house one college-regulation competition court and two practice/ competition courts, a multipurpose junior recreational space, two volleyball courts, 300seat bleachers that greatly increase spectator capacity (formerly 50), a state-of-the-art fitness room, locker rooms for both home and visiting teams, and training facilities.

Fitness, Health & Wellness Suite

In addition to the state-of-the-art fitness room, the proposed building offers a suite of offices for athletic trainers, mental health and wellness counselors, the School nurse, the athletic director, and department staff. This coordinated approach to health and wellness will propel and shape the program’s future.

Multi-Use Classrooms

The new building will house four additional flexible classrooms for Middle and Upper School programming, providing the School with much-needed functional multi-use spaces to supplement the Hastings Center. These classrooms, combined with the new junior gym, will also address the need for a childhood movement space and a dedicated, accessible home for the Extended Day program.

Event & Community Spaces

The entrance to the new building will offer a showcase lobby that doubles as social and study space. An ideal location for students to gather throughout the day, the lobby will also be the perfect space for alumni functions and community events. Adjacent to the lobby, the flexible classrooms can be opened into larger rooms for alumni and Board meetings, smaller parent gatherings, and full grade activities. Combined with the 300-seat capacity gymnasium, this building will double Brimmer’s event and community space and offer locations for speakers, performances, exhibitions, and gatherings.

This space will transform the day-to-day experience of every Brimmer student and create a campus that works better for everyone. Connected to the Hastings Center, this new sustainably smart structure will become the cornerstone of the west end of campus, providing ample and thoughtfully designed space to elevate health and wellness programming, as well as enhance the athletic, physical, and wellness educational experience for Brimmer students of all ages.

Lower School Recreation & Learning Space Improvements

In the summer of 2020, the Mugar Family Playground & Outdoor Learning Space opened in the Lower School. This beautiful new outdoor space acts as a playground, outdoor classroom, bike track, water pumping station, garden laboratory, and outdoor theater, and has been nothing short of transformative.

In addition, the School spent the summer of 2022 modernizing and reconfiguring the classroom space in historic Cummings Hall that houses grades 4 and 5, making classrooms more spacious and modern and increasing the collaboration between those grades.

The School continues to focus on the expansion of the 4/5 interscholastic athletics program geared toward building teamwork, sportsmanship, and leadership skills. The program marks the beginning of an athletics journey for students in their final two years of Lower School. The proposed multipurpose junior recreational space will support the physical education programming for our youngest students and the large gymnasium space will provide a more dynamic environment for our older Lower School students.

Endowment for Faculty Compensation & Teaching Excellence

Currently, Brimmer’s restricted endowment and invested funds total approximately $40 million. The endowment has grown significantly over the past five years. To continue to deliver on the School’s mission and support a diverse and vibrant school community, we direct our efforts to growing our endowment, which will alleviate pressure on the School’s operating budget and facilitate program enhancements. In turn, this will enable Brimmer to provide the resources we need to be competitive, appealing, and vital in the years to come.

At the heart of a Brimmer education and experience is its faculty. Therefore, we must ensure that Brimmer will continue to attract and retain outstanding faculty while also rewarding teaching excellence and innovative ideas. Historically, Brimmer’s faculty salaries fell below comparable schools. A historic $5 million gift in 2020 established The Endowment for Faculty Compensation & Teaching Excellence, which has enabled our Board of Trustees to approve substantial increases in faculty salaries. By doing so, our faculty are now compensated above the mean of our peer institutions. We believe that this is critical to attracting and retaining the best faculty. This endowment supplements the operating budget to provide meaningful annual awards for faculty longevity and for innovative ideas and programs. As part of this gift, Brimmer has committed to raising an additional $1 million to supplement the endowment, which will ensure continued growth and progress over time.

Looking Ahead

Thanks to devoted supporters—including alumni, parents, alumni parents, trustees, foundations, and grandparents—we are confident that we can make rapid progress on securing the funds needed to build our new facility and add to the faculty endowment. You can find more details on the website by scanning the QR code to the right. Don’t hesitate to email me at esmith@ brimmer.org or call my office at 617-739-5289 with any questions. ■

This space will transform the day-to-day experience of every Brimmer student and create a campus that works better for everyone. ’

Alumni Lead the Way in Supporting Faculty Endowment

When alumna Trustee Leslie Stimmel Guggiari ’73 was deciding how to support the campaign, she chose to match any alumni gift to The Endowment for Faculty Compensation & Teaching Excellence up to $250,000. Guggiari was inspired by faculty who made a difference during her time at Brimmer and May School, and she knew that other alumni would be inspired to ensure that future Brimmer faculty will always be compensated above the mean with other independent schools in the Boston market.

Since then, fellow alumna Trustee Kennie Bissell Grogan ’76 came forward with a leadership donation to be matched. This, in combination with donations from the Class of 1973 50th Reunion gift (see page 73) and other alumna trustees, we added $510,000 to the endowment. Alumna trustees hope to inspire other alumni to continue to build on this progress. Some alumni are giving their donations in honor or in memory of Brimmer and May faculty members who made a significant impact on them as students.

Thank you to all our alumni who were inspired to add to The Endowment for Faculty Compensation & Teaching Excellence.

Lisa Hastings and Mark Hastings P ’18, ’19 donate lead $7 million gift for new Recreation & Wellness Center

When Mark and Lisa Hastings came to Brimmer as new parents in the fall of 2012, they got right to work as volunteers, supporters, and community members. Since then, Mark and Lisa’s three children, Matthew ’18, Michael ’18, and Emma ’19 have all graduated from college and are happily engaged in careers and graduate school, but the family has continued to actively support the School that was foundational to them all.

“Over the years, we have witnessed the unique and transformational educational and personal growth opportunities Brimmer provides to its diverse community of students,” they shared. “Despite our status as alumni parents, we continue to feel a strong connection to the School, its leadership team, and its teachers. This amazing facility will level up the athletic and wellness experience to match the rest of the School. Not to mention, we are becoming too old to watch basketball in a metal folding chair with a high risk of being taken out by a player or errant pass.“

Many thanks to the Hastings family for their continued belief in and support of Brimmer and May School.