From Our Board: Assisting All Collegiate Families, April 22, 2020

4/22/2020

We want to tell you about the immediate steps we are taking to support our families during this unprecedented time.

Dear Collegiate Families,

When we last wrote to you, we promised to communicate often as we continue to proactively assess the shifting landscape. Today we want to tell you about the immediate steps we are taking to support our families during this unprecedented time.

The ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the world and our immediate community is front and center on our minds. As we guide Collegiate's future and ensure optimal mission delivery, our faculty and staff are working hard to provide a quality educational experience.

Although our physical campus is closed, we remain open as a School. Together with Collegiate’s professional and administrative team, we continue to assess the current situation and prepare for the future. We engage in local and national conversations as we seek the optimal path for our School. Your ongoing support and partnership allow us to be responsive and resilient, and we thank you.

Academic Program 2020-21 School Year

Collegiate remains committed to providing a challenging and supportive educational experience. To this end, we intend to deliver an in-person experience next school year. We anticipate greeting you and our students with tremendous joy. To a person, we miss each other, the sights, sounds and community experiences on our campus. However, we know that the potential for another COVID-19 wave may affect our ability to gather, despite our hopes and plans to do so.

Using invaluable input from our faculty, staff, families and students, Collegiate’s team will spend time this summer sharpening the delivery of remote learning, should that be necessary, and enhancing our remote learning model. Our long history of philanthropic support for professional development allows us to deepen our educational impact by providing best-in-class opportunities for our faculty and staff this summer.

In this rapidly changing world, we assure you that your children will receive what they need to successfully progress to the next grade level, their next academic setting and in the wider world. We take this commitment seriously and have unanimously approved actions that we believe will enable us to fulfill this commitment.

Action Steps to Assist Collegiate Families

We recognize that Collegiate families are affected in many ways by the stay-at-home mandate that is causing substantial financial hardship, both locally and globally. For some, the first tuition payment of the school year on July 28, 2020 will be difficult. Just as we believe it is critical to retain our faculty and staff, we are focusing substantial energy and resources on retaining Collegiate families.

With this goal in mind, for families currently enrolled for the 2019-20, school year, we offer the following actions for the 2020-21 school year:

Freeze Tuition for 2020-21. Tuition for 2020-21 will remain the same as 2019-20 and your July tuition statement will reflect this change. We recognize that these are extraordinary times filled with hardship, and we believe this action provides all families with relief.

Expand Payment Options for 2020-21 School Year. If you are experiencing significant financial hardship due the COVID-19 crisis, the School will work with you on payment options that best meet your needs. While we would prefer that you use the one- or two-pay payment plan, for this year only, we will also add a no-fee, four-payment plan option (July 28, Oct. 28, Jan. 28, April 28). Requests for a change in payment options will be determined on a confidential case-by-case basis and coordinated through our Business Office. If you need to alter your selected plan or require flexibility in meeting billing deadlines, please contact the Business Office at 804.741.9756.

Increase in Need-based Financial Assistance for Current Aid Recipients. Careful stewardship of our resources has allowed us to increase our continued investment in our need-based financial assistance program. Roughly 18% of Collegiate students currently receive financial assistance based on their demonstrated need. Today, we are increasing available financial assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of families who have experienced a change in circumstances as a direct result of COVID-19 since submitting their financial assistance application for this year. For those needing assistance with Collegiate experiences beyond tuition, our existing endowed funds are here to support you. In either case, please reach out to our Business Office at 804.726.3277 for completion of additional documentation to ensure we can assist you.

Establish Collegiate Families Emergency Relief Fund. The School is establishing the Collegiate Families Emergency Relief Fund (CFERF) to provide a one-time grant toward 2020-21 tuition for families experiencing significant financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis. Accessing these funds will require a confidential application process due no later than Friday, May 8, 2020. The instructions and application can be found here.

Individual philanthropic, tax-deductible donations to this fund will help ensure that our Collegiate community remains intact. Each of us has committed personal financial support to the CFERF. We sincerely hope that as many families as can afford to do so will make a contribution, at any level, to the CFERF by clicking here.

During this challenging time, we feel fortunate to have the strength of our dedicated and talented employees, the supportive families of Collegiate past and present, and our committed volunteers. We consider it a privilege to support our community and believe in Collegiate's call to develop "good citizens in the widest sense," as our founder Helen Baker proclaimed more than 100 years ago.

For more information, please see these FAQs. If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our team: Penny Evins, Head of School; Phyllis Palmiero, Vice President for Finance and Administration; and Kristen Williams, Vice President of Development.

Thank you for your trust, support and partnership. We wish you and your family good health and look forward to the opportunity to express our gratitude to you personally.

Sincerely,

John W. Martin ‘78, Chairman of the Board, Parent ‘10, ‘11