Letter from the Chair of the Board of Trustees

Letter from Bill Menard

Every time I visit Millbrook School for board meetings or other events, I am once again thrilled to experience the Millbrook School that I knew as a student, parent, and long-serving trustee. The school's momentum only continues to pick up across all areas of school life, and WE CONTINUE TO ACCOMPLISH THE MANY GOALS THAT BRING US CLOSER to making Millbrook the finest boarding school in the country.

In 2021-2022 alone, we raised over $5 million in capital funds for endowment and brick-and-mortar projects and surpassed our Annual Fund goal of $2.4 million. Those latter funds go directly to our operating budget to support programs and financial aid, helping make a Millbrook education affordable to all. Last year we provided financial aid to 32% of our students, an increase over previous years. We also saw our community become more diverse, increasing our population of domestic students of color to 23%.

Capital fundraising allowed us to complete our counseling center, and we are poised to finish the transformation of Pulling Circle. In these days of turbulent labor markets, we added significantly to our salaries and benefits for faculty and staff while expanding our efforts to provide professional support through our faculty growth and renewal program. In this way, we ensure that our greatest assets—the men and women who teach, coach, and mentor our students—are well-trained, supported, and compensated. Families have taken notice of our continued growth and momentum; we had a record-high number of applications, nearly 800, for just over 100 spots. Increasing pride among our alumni body also resulted in the largest attendance at Alumni Weekend ever this summer, including more than forty members of the Class of 2017.

Our ambitions remain squarely mission-centric. We continue to work toward realizing the goals in our Vision 2025 strategic plan, which include expanding our athletic facilities to create a true community sports center focused on competitive athletics, student and faculty wellness, and school pride. Groundbreaking on new housing for six additional faculty families will begin soon, and we will build a new boys dormitory in the not-too-distant future.

Our most important recent success has been selecting Millbrook’s seventh head of school. Jon Downs’ leadership has been nothing short of remarkable, and the support of so many—the board, a phenomenal administrative team, a singularly dedicated faculty and staff, and the entire Millbrook community—inspires Jon to move Millbrook into the future under the banner of our motto, Non Sibi Sed Cunctis. Your support makes Millbrook School an unstoppable and unbeatable proposition. Because of you, I cannot wait for the future!

With every good wish and unrelenting gratitude,

William L. Menard ’78 Chair of the Board of Trustees