Money is essential for modern-day programs in our school, Friends’ Central School. We were curious as to how Friends’ Central has been doing financially, and how it offers the many classes, activities, clubs, and opportunities that it does. We went to speak with Miriam Schaefer who is the head of the Friends’ Central Business Office. She was very gracious in answering all of our questions and ended up talking to us for more than 20 minutes. We found her answers to be insightful, informative, and very interesting.
Friends’ Central School has a large budget. The Friends’ Central Annual Report of Gifts includes the revenues collected and the expenses for all of the projects that we fund each year. It includes the costs such as renovating Shallcross and our brand new cafeteria. The school has a lot of other expenses she said and they are primarily the payroll and benefits for the employees.
She informed us that they carefully hire people that the school needs. They strive to keep their costs under control since they work in the service (and nonprofit) industry of education. She said that the main budget is for the staff and their benefits. They are very careful how they hire people because they are working to build a community. The school hires people for teaching, for general staffing, for security, for grounds management, and for dining services. All of these people build our community to make Friends’ Central an amazing place.
The school is also resourceful in raising money. For example, the school runs a very successful summer program that kids attend. These kids are not just from Friends’ Central school but from the entire surrounding areas. The summer programs are well-attended by the community. There is also the FCA aquatics program which is one of the best within the region. A lot of the schools don’t have swimming programs like this although they may have swimming programs just for their students. Friends’ Central swimming program is available to all and is community-based.
Friends’ Central also hosts the Japanese Language School during the weekends. A lot of schools are closed during the weekend but Friends’ Central opens its doors to the Japanese Language School community. The Japanese Language School and the Aquatics program run on weekends and they’re both very successful. This also brings in funding to our school for its many other programs. The school has to maintain every line on the field, to trim the trees, to train safety officers, and the list goes on. The money from our tuition helps improve the schools’ programming as well. We are now a Green Restaurant-certified cafeteria!
With all this said we can say that our tuition money goes to improve the community and the quality of Friends’ Central School and its many services.
We would like to thank Ms. Schaefer for her information and helping us understand how Friends’ Central offers us the diversity of programs that it does and keeps our school day interesting.
If you would like access to the transcript of the interview please email either dgupta@friendscentral.org.
by Dev Gupta ’23 and Christian Whitfield ’23
This was a great article, guys, thank you for writing it! I found it very interesting, informative, and well-written. Nice job!
We can’t wait to have you guys join the upper school newspaper! Keep up this great work.