Dear Parents,

In January the Finance Committee began meeting to establish our budget for the next school year. We reviewed Final Statement of Operations for the last several years, a list of Budget Building Factors published by the Archdiocese, and our current financial statement that shows our planned budget and actual income and expenses for this school year. Over a series of meetings we worked hard to create a realistic budget with three goals in mind:

I believe we have achieved each of these goals and still have a realistic budget that enables us to meet expenses. The new rates (5.5% increase for the first child) are still lower than the actual per pupil cost of education because this community has been so very good about fundraising. We have reached our target goal for second child rate (75% of first child) and have moved close to our target for the third child rate (48% of first child rate – our target is 50%).

We have also initiated a plan to reduce “extra expenses” by raising the Registration Fee (for the first time in four years) to $500. The extra funds generated from this will allow us to cover fees for the Parents Club, Wine Gala, and the Festival. We still need your support with these events which will be noted in the Mandatory Obligation Form, but will no longer be asking for front money for them throughout the year. We will also use some of the additional Registration Fee income for bulk purchase of some of the shared classroom supplies (e.g., reams of paper) we have been asking parents to send in. Finally, each class will have $500 in a class field trip budget. This may not cover all expenses but again will cut down on the number of times we ask for money.

Our plan is to have 25 children per class in the lower grades and 30 per class in the upper grades, and actual enrollments are gradually rising to bring us closer to this target. These enrollment goals will help us continue our efforts to build a science lab, add more laptop computers, and meet rising salaries (our 11 full time teachers hold 9 California teaching credentials, 1 New York credential, 2 more California credentials are in progress. We also hold 5 MAs with 3 more in progress. A total of 11 nominations to Whose Who Among American educators have been awarded to our teachers).

Listed below are the new tuition rates for the 2008–09 school year and in this envelope are the forms you need to fill out to re–register and to sign up for the FACTS Tuition Management Program. Please return all materials by the indicated deadlines.

NEW TUITION RATES (FOR PARTICIPATING FAMILIES PROVIDING REQUIRED VOLUNTEER HOURS)
First Child            $5338.00     $533.80 total per month
Second Child       $4000.00     $933.80 total per month
Third Child          $2560.00     $1189.90 total per month

NEW TUITION RATES (NON-PARTICIPATING FAMILIES)
First Child            $6338.00     $633.80 total per month
Second Child       $4000.00     $1033.80 total per month
Third Child          $2560.00     $1289.90 total per month

Thank you all very much for your continued support of our school community.

Sincerely,

Terrence Hanley
Principal

Congratulations Science Fair Winners: Congratulations to the 9 Star students who took awards at the 26th Annual San Francisco Middle School Science Fair at Randall Museum. They competed against over 200 top entries from public and private San Francisco middle schools. The following prizes were awarded in various categories: 3rd Place to Eugene Kwan/Bradley Monterola; 4th Place to Sasha Kondrachov/Yelena Vayn and Rebecca Gisslow; Honorable Mention to Johann Joson, Simon Ocharoenkul, Caitlyn Miranda and Moises Hernandez. A big thank you goes to our science teacher, Paul Quintilian, who led the students through the process!

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