FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL One good thing leads to another, my mother liked to say, and it certainly remains true at Episcopal High School as we report on the 2018-2019 school year and begin 2019-2020. Last year, celebrated in this Annual Report, was a success by any measure, and this year’s opening month has only built success upon success. Your support, financial and otherwise, makes it all possible.
It is hard to imagine a school where there is more “good” happening than at EHS.
We opened the year with some 750 students as we continue our steady planned growth in the student body toward our ultimate goal of 800 students. We grew the faculty and support staff in proportion, of course, as we continue to maintain small class sizes across all Four Pillars with an average class size of 13 students. We admitted a freshman class of 198 students from 45 different middle schools; we admitted 17 students in the sophomore and junior classes combined, and they come from 11 different high schools. Last year’s seniors, 182 strong, were accepted at 161 different colleges and universities and will attend 75 different schools. They were offered more than $20 million in scholarships and grants. Through it all and over the last decade, the school has maintained the lowest average rate of tuition increase across all our peer schools in Houston along with the highest average rate of increase to faculty and staff salaries over that same period. In addition, we concluded our most recent construction project at Thanksgiving last year with the opening of the new USC. Most important, we are proud that EHS continues to operate without debt of any kind.
We are proud that we have preserved the best of our unique culture in this period of growth, ensuring that the mission and overall experience that led to our early success continues unabated, and arguably stronger, today and in the years ahead. To help us remain focused, last year we also successfully concluded major revisions to the endowment’s bylaws and the school’s Mission and Guiding Principles (see page 6). These changes, along with our strategic plan, led us to add a new senior position for 2019-2020, the Director of Community and Inclusion about which you will learn more in the next issue of Pillars. For now, we are pleased to introduce veteran dean, teacher and coach, Wayne Jones, featured on page 28. All of our successes are built on the strong history of support from all our constituencies highlighted within this report.
In short, the School continues to work hard to firm up its many advantages and to seek opportunities to make progress above and beyond. We have had the benefit of stable leadership as illustrated on page 35, where we call out the most senior of our faculty and staff who together have dedicated 554 years to EHS. This longevity and the stability it creates is probably our greatest asset, as well as our Board of Trustees, which continues to be strong in its individual members as well as in the collective support for the mission of the School. It is hard to imagine a school where there is more “good” happening than at EHS. Our mission and gifts have met a pronounced need in Houston and beyond, and we are excited for what the future holds. Thank you for all that you did and are yet to do to make this possible. Go Knights,
Ned Smith, Head of School
4
