DECEMBER 02
Building Our Community: A Message from the President We are off to a great start this year, and we welcome all of our new and returning families. One of Harker’s goals this year is to provide parents with more information about school policies, procedures and events. To assist in accomplishing these objectives, we will publish answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in our newsletter and on the Parent Home Page of our Web site beginning with this issue. We sincerely hope you find this useful and informative, and we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have. We wish all of you a great year!
—Howard Nichols, President howardn@harker.org
What kind of tuition increase can I expect for the 2003-04 school year?
Q
providing a top quality A While education for your child is our primar y mission, our secondary one is to do so at the most reasonable tuition fee possible. Particularly due to the current economic situation, we plan to keep our costs as low as possible without cutting programming or staff. We are currently evaluating our expenses schoolwide and hope to keep the tuition increase to around 4-5% for next year. Our aim is to cut corners on “extras” so as not to impact the quality of our programming and services for students and parents. We know that Harker families consider quality education important, but we also understand that the pinch of a tougher economy sends us back to our budgets to make sure we’re all doing the best we can with the funds we have. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can in each and every division at Harker to keep our expenses down. Interestingly enough, Harker is actually charging less in tuition than we should given the scope of our programming compared to other schools in our area. While this doesn’t take away the pinch of the current economic situation, it is a notable achievement, and we intend to continue to provide outstanding programming to our families at the best price possible.
Q
What factors go into determining Harker’s tuition?
Quality faculty, broad program offerings and small class sizes are hallmarks of a Harker education and proven winners in the success of our students. They are also expensive to provide. The majority of your tuition goes to paying the salaries of our teachers. It is in the best interests of our students to recruit and retain the
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Continued on other side
2002-03 Projected Revenue & Expenses Revenue Tuition Summer Tuition Endowment Additional Fees & Revenue
$29,380,580 $ 2,458,000 $ 0 $ 3,141,834
Student Fees, Auxiliary Programs, Optional Programs & Investment Revenue
Annual Giving
$ 1,250,000 Total Revenue
9% Additional Revenue
$36,230,414
3% Annual Giving 81% Tuition
7% Summer Tuition
Expenses Salaries & Staff-Related Expenses
$25,460,016
Salaries, Benefits, Recruitment & Professional Development
Student Programs, Supplies & Equipment
$ 4,050,040
Academic Expenses, Activity Expenses, (Examples of these items on other side) Scholarships, Depreciation of Equipment/Assets, Optional Programs Expense
Student & Parent Services
$ 1,837,389
Food Service, Security, Transportation, Infirmary, Admissions, Community Relations, Technology, Communications, College Counseling, Counseling
Operations & Mortgage
$ 4,882,969
Facilities/Grounds & Facilities Depreciation, Marketing/Communications, Development, Human Resources, Legal & Accounting, General Administrative, Tax, Insurance & Utilities, Mortgage & Lease Expense & Reserves, Auxiliary Expenses
Total Expenses $36,230,414 Includes In-Kind Gifts