Where Does Sequoyah Tuition Go?
Everyone has heard their parents complain about Sequoyah’s tuition. It may feel exaggerated or excessive. Many Sequoyah students have uttered the phrase “We have to be able to afford THAT!” It’s hard not to make numerous comparisons to schools like Flintridge Preparatory School or Polytechnic School, envying their sparkly new gym or their expensive trip to Tokyo. One student in particular perfectly embodies this assumption: Henry Holcomb ‘28. Holcomb compares Sequoyah to Prep, saying that while Prep is a much more prestigious school and has more amenities, it has a similar tuition to Sequoyah’s: “I don't think the tuition's really fair.” He sees this “unfair” tuition as only 50% of Sequoyah’s profits, when, in actuality, it’s 86%. He goes on to explain how he believes that “100% Sequoyah has the money to just buy out the church.” These sweeping assumptions may seem reasonable at first—Sequoyah’s tuition is $46,095—but each of those will prove to be wilder than originally thought.
Where does tuition go?
Many factors shape Sequoyah’s budget and costs that other schools either handle more easily or don’t have to worry about at all. Michael Barak, Sequoyah’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), explains that tuition is Sequoyah’s main source of revenue. While some other schools may depend more on donations from individuals or foundations, Sequoyah doesn’t always have that luxury. Sequoyah’s budget is split into two categories: the first includes salaries and benefits, which depend on how many people are on the payroll. The second category comprises miscellaneous expenses like rent, facility maintenance, classroom supplies, field studies, and extracurricular funds. But all of these expenses depend on the revenue; Sequoyah cannot spend more than it earns.
However, there are times when Sequoyah earns more than it spends. In those times, the extra funds go to “rainy day” funds or “opportunistic” funds. Barak explains that “using it for rainy days is [for example] the fires, which added unforeseen costs to our community and to the school.” Opportunistic funds are things that Sequoyah needs to do or that would really benefit the community, but they might not always have funds for it; for example, building the teacher’s lounge. Extra funds can also be allocated to any costly goals for the next few years.
Why can other schools afford things we can’t?
While Sequoyah maintains a similar tuition to schools like Prep and Poly, there are areas where amenities differ. Many students may wonder why Sequoyah doesn’t go on as fancy trips as other schools—Tokyo, France, etc.—or why we don’t have a gym or a theatre or a cafeteria. Then again, other schools with students who go to Tokyo are paying thousands of extra dollars to attend these trips, while contrastingly, Sequoyah has every student go on field studies, not just those who can pay. Sequoyah’s Director of Advancement, Lee Taylor, explains that even though Sequoyah has a similar tuition, other differences create this gap. For example, she explains that Flintridge Prep has more students, meaning more tuition revenue; they were also founded before Sequoyah, meaning they are more established and has more alumni that could donate.
Most importantly, other schools have endowments. An endowment, according to both Barak and Taylor, is a large sum of money placed in a bank directed towards a specific cause. For example, Sequoyah has a Staff Compensation endowment that they can’t use for buildings. However, endowments have limitations: they can only be used a minimum of three years after their initiation, and one can only use the interest it makes, not the original sum. Schools like Prep have been around longer, so they have access to these large sums of money from their active endowments. In addition, while parents might be happy to donate to buildings or programs, as they can see it take shape, Taylor points out how, “to give to…an endowment…it might feel like it's not sexy.”
Other schools have financial aid too; why does it seem like a bigger obstacle for Sequoyah?
While other schools do have financial aid, there are different factors that dictate how that money gets distributed. For context, indexed tuition is a program one can apply for if they cannot afford full tuition; if a family qualifies, they pay a certain percentage of tuition, rather than the whole thing. According to Taylor, most schools that have indexed tuition have endowments that can make up for it, so a lot of the time they don’t have to factor that into their budget. In addition, while other schools do offer indexed tuition or financial aid, the students that they accept to begin with are a particular demographic that might not need it. Schools might search only for full-pay families who will, as well as paying full tuition, give large sums of money to the school’s campaign. Taylor also describes the social aspect: “There’s just a certain type of person that wants to look around and feel like they're with ‘their people.’ It's almost like a country club type of feeling at that point” (Taylor). She explains that schools that cater to this demographic often have a social hierarchy of families, meaning there are certain social groups where you have to give more to the school to get invited to certain events. In contrast, Taylor describes Sequoyah’s very purposeful lean away from that; the school works to not give special benefits to higher-paying families and to be an option for all different demographics.
Taylor elaborates on the importance of incorporating socioeconomic diversity in terms of enrollment. Sequoyah can provide indexed tuition for the lower bracket, but as the cost of living continues to increase with inflation, the middle bracket—who at one point might’ve been able to pay full tuition—now requires more financial aid, making Sequoyah depend more on the shrinking higher-paying bracket. One of the main reasons that is difficult, she says, is because Sequoyah doesn’t have some of those attention-drawing factors like a fancy gym or a swimming pool, so Sequoyah requires something else to set it apart. If Sequoyah’s full-tuition-paying bracket keeps shrinking, that impacts its individual donations as well, creating an imbalance between revenues.
While Sequoyah is generous with indexed tuition, some schools are picky with which students they believe “deserve” it. Some schools limit financial aid to only the staff’s kids. At schools like Prep, which has a larger student body, only 25% of students are on financial aid, while Sequoyah has about 50%. The index tuition for most schools—as mentioned above—can get taken out of endowments, but for Sequoyah it gets taken out of the tuition revenue: tuition per student - indexed tuition = tuition revenue, rather than tuition per student (- indexed tuition) + endowment = tuition revenue.
Why can’t we just get more students? Wouldn’t that mean more tuition?
While you might be wondering why Sequoyah doesn’t just exponentially increase its enrollment, the school has Conditional Use Permits at both Sequoyah campuses, which are in residential areas. Conditional Use Permits limit how many students can be on a site—basically, a maximum capacity (for the high school, it is 216 students). Other schools can have larger Conditional Use Permits because they have larger sites or are in different areas.
Do they even listen to my problems?
Sequoyah hears you. After Julio has been called to classroom after classroom, it is highly doubtful that no one knows that the Wi-Fi isn’t perfect. After 17 girls have complained about an AC-less gym at 98° weather, someone most likely knows that children are dying. Sequoyah most likely knows that the High Sierras aren’t as glamorous as Tokyo. If students voice their problems, they’re usually heard. The issue isn’t always in hearing them; it’s planning to make that happen. How long did it take Sequoyah to improve the AC? Even then, it wasn’t perfectly a matter of funding, but of fitting that issue into a list of priorities, says Barak. This list, in all of its glory, is called the 10-year plan. It is a plan for all the revenue and expenses for the next ten years, plus anything above $5,000—or to do with facilities—they want to do in that time. Every Sequoyah K8 student remembers watching in horror as the grass on the field got torn up and replaced with shiny, glistening, green blades that you couldn’t step on for 8 weeks. Even that needs to be factored into the 10-year plan. All of the problems—that are reasonable and would cost above $5,000—from students that are listened to, either through student government or as told directly to the board, get added to the 10-year plan.
You might think, “There's no way my little problem costs $5,000!” but you would be wrong. Take the Girls Volleyball Team wanting to move practice gyms. Every girl on the team knows the insane heat and lack of AC; however, if the team moved to the game gym at Jackie Robinson Recreational Center, the cost would go from free (the YWCA) to $1,601 per week (2 practices and one game). That seemingly small problem will cost $6,404 after only 4 weeks. As much as things may seem like an easy fix, there is always another layer. Another example would be anything on the High School campus that has to do with facilities: Wi-Fi (for example, fixing wiring required $30,000, while smaller electronic funds go into the tech operating budget), AC, breaks/renovations, and new structures all have to go through the church and its priority list to be able to get done.
Why should I give Sequoyah some slack?
Although Sequoyah’s tuition is pricey, it isn’t as if money is going to invisible funds (besides those mysterious endowments) or falling off the face of the earth. All of the students’ tuition goes to equally important causes. Whether they’re paying teachers and giving them the benefit of getting to go to the dentist, or fixing the waterlogged K8 classrooms, that money is going somewhere. So even if the Wi-Fi lags a bit more than normal, that’s not necessarily an excuse not to do your work or to beat your high score on the dinosaur game. Instead of lamenting that Sequoyah is withholding money instead of using it on a better practice gym, we can thank the YWCA for being free. Sequoyah is working with the resources they have. Every student at Sequoyah is here to invest in their future at a diverse, challenging institution. Sequoyah isn't an overpriced, hippie-school version of Erewhon that holds your money hostage; it's a persevering, all-inclusive non-profit that is simply working with what it's got.