The financial question was one that garnered a great number of comments and so I thought it would be helpful to elaborate on a few points. Some of you wondered what the $350,000 additional expenditures entailed. The most significant portion of that additional cost actually involves faculty compensation. Typically, our class sizes range from 12-18 students. Given that we knew remote learning would be far more effective for students and teachers with smaller class sizes (based on our experience last spring), as well as taking into consideration CDC and Pima County Health Department guidelines for mitigating risk when eventually in person, we intentionally held the majority of our classes, when the schedule allowed, to smaller numbers. This means we needed to have more sections of the same class offered, which in turn meant we needed to ask faculty to teach more sections. Typically, a full-time teacher at TGS teaches five sections or classes. Many have agreed to teach six this year. On average, the “cost” of a section to the school is $10,000. By adding over 20 new sections, we’ve increased our instructional cost in the operating budget by approximately $200,000. We’ve done this to enhance the efficacy of remote learning, while mitigating risk and enhancing student and faculty safety when we are able to meet in person.
Other significant expenditures in that $350,000 total included increased custodial staff, extra cleaning protocols, and acquiring a variety of PPE. The PPE includes equipment such as new hands-free door handles or self-standing air filtering systems for smaller spaces with limited doors and windows, tents and fans, additional computers, new WiFi coverage in outdoor campus areas and upgrades to network infrastructure with new WiFi access points, plexiglass dividers, additional tables and chairs for outdoor use, and more.
A second financial question that arose in the feedback section was to seek clarification as to why families are expected to pay the same level of tuition during this period of remote learning. Well, part of the answer lies in the information I just shared, but another and even more important part of the answer is to say that our teachers are delivering the highest quality remote learning experiences possible and that also costs money. For instance, in addition to the textbooks and literature books that are covered by tuition, teachers requested that TGS provide materials for class projects that include the following:
 | Whiteboards, dry erase markers and erasers for all MS students and subsets of US students |
| Art 6, Art 7 & Art 8 - Large packages of art material, including paints, colored pencils, and sketch paper. |
| Art 1,2, 3, Advanced Art and 5th grade Art - Art supply packets, including paints, colored pencils, and sketch paper. |
| English/Literature classes - Composition notebooks, index cards, and poetry packets
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| PE - Jump ropes, pom-poms, water bottles, etc.
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| 5th Grade - Adventure suitcases, including travel leather notebooks, washable watercolor paint bulk set, tall plastic jars with lids, adventure books
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| Garden-to-Table classes - Bag of supplies with all materials to start a garden from home
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| Theater and Stagecraft classes - Bags of materials to create costumes for theater
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| Music - Music binders & music whiteboards, as needed
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| Sciences - Bags of materials for experiments: balloons, food coloring, squishy dough, measuring tape, film canisters, measuring beakers, straws, plates, pipe cleaners, etc. |
| Mandarin - Chinese calligraphy paper/pen sets |
| Engineering - Models & material for engineering projects
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| AP Calculus BC, Statistics, Precalculus - Notes packets, Arduino kits, construction kits, isometric paper.
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| Planners for all MS students
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Our faculty are committed to delivering the highest quality of instruction to your children during this remote delivery period and therefore planned accordingly by requesting that these additional materials be purchased by the school and we enthusiastically agreed. Unfortunately, individual packets for each student cost more than a classroom set—an added expense that will be necessary even for in-person learning settings this year.
We realize that the big question in many minds is about when students will be invited back to campus for in-person learning. In next week’s message our goal is to provide more clarity in that regard. What type of hybrid learning will we add beyond what is currently being delivered? When do we expect to bring larger groups of students and faculty back to campus? Will the schedule be modified again with in-person learning on campus? We have working committees addressing these very questions and look forward to providing more specifics next week.
In the meantime, continue to take good care and thank you for your support and high level of engagement.
Warm regards,
Julie A. Sherrill, Ph.D.
Head of School
"The Gregory School is a place that is transforming learning and transforming students' lives. Gregory students lead institutions; they found movements; they invent technology; they run cities. Students leave TGS with a sense of agency; they believe they can change the world for the better and it is our aim to ensure we give them the knowledge, skills, experiences and confidence to do so."