16 st. george’s school
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BUILDING ON OUR STRENGTHS, FORGING AN INSPIRED PATH TO THE FUTURE
An interview with new Chair of the Board of Trustees Dana Schmaltz ’85 What is your assessment of the school as you take over as board chair? St. George’s is in a great position right now. With Alixe [Callen] entering her fifth year as Head of School, she and her team have achieved fantastic results that have made the school stronger than it has ever been. Alixe and I share a strong belief in data, and the numbers speak for themselves on the strength
of our school. Applications are up more than 50% over the last five years, with more than 1,000 applications for roughly 100 spots for the incoming class. Despite all of the challenges posed by the pandemic, Alixe and her team kept the school open, and our students demonstrated incredible resilience and determination despite the limitations that were put in place to keep the community healthy and safe. We’ve had another great year for college placement in one of the most competitive environments ever. Discipline incidents have continued to decrease as students continue to build a true sense of community and responsibility on the Hilltop. Equally as important, Alixe and her team, as well as the Board of Trustees, continued to increase the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Building on our progress and creating a welcoming and inclusive educational environment with a diverse student body that reflects our society as a whole will be one of my top priorities as chair. I want students from every background to want to come to St. George’s because they see it as a place where they can thrive in and outside of the classroom. Likewise, our financial position has never been stronger. Our endowment is over $200 million, and our annual giving sets a new record each year. We completed the renovation of our historic Memorial Schoolhouse, which I hope everyone will get the chance to see at our 125th anniversary celebration in May. We are investing this financial strength in the areas that build on the continued success of St. George’s: (a) in our faculty and administration as we continue to increase compensation to attract the best teachers and administrators; (b) in our financial aid, which has increased almost 25% over the last five years as we seek to bring the best students to SG; and (c) in our capital budget, which has almost doubled over the last five years as we seek to catch up on years of deferred maintenance to restore the fantastic “bones” of our
