Knowing Your School

By Dr. Terry Macaluso, Head of School

As a school head, nothing is more important than knowing the community we serve.  My hope is that everyone in our EPS community—students, parents, faculty, staff—feels known by others in the community. Here are a few things that I think I know about our EPS community (most of which has been learned over the years through experience).  And yes, there’s definitely a theme to these data points:

  • We like a sense of humor (see silly videos each year starring the Head of School and Division Heads for various fundraising campaigns).
  • We’re not an “auction sort of community.” I’m not sure I actually know I’m not an “auction sort of Head of School” so I may be imposing this one on our community.
  • We’re not the sort of community that responds to a big thermometer that lets us know where we are in our fundraising campaigns. (We learned this one the hard way.  We put up a thermometer once, and pledges stopped; we took that thermometer down, and pledges started again.)
  • We like a transparent approach to fundraising.  Each year in the fall, I let you know what we need for our Annual Fund, and each year your response has been enthusiastic and overwhelming.  (Did I mention that we are at 96% participation on that fund—wow!)

So in an effort to be (somewhat) humorous, to avoid a thermometer on campus, and to be transparent, I’d like to let you know where we are on our TALI fundraising. A little history—before we even broke ground we raised $30,000,000 for the TALI building. Because Seattle is in a building boom right now and costs have skyrocketed, we realized we needed an additional $3,000,000 to complete the project and we set about raising those funds last spring. We raised $2.5 of that goal in a few short months and then put the campaign on hold until after the Annual Fund. We just re-launched this campaign with a request for the final $500,000. In just the past few weeks, you have responded generously, and we now have less than $300,000 left to raise.

Here’s the thing:

  • If you’ve already supported TALI, thank you!
  • If you haven’t, would you? Please? If we sell 75 seats at $4000, we’ll be done with this campaign!
  • If you’ve bought a seat, would you consider buying another, or two more…or a row?!
  • And if buying a seat really isn’t your deal and you don’t feel the need to have your name on a plaque, no worries; we can accept a pledge in any amount.

In case you’d like to buy a seat, buy more seats, or just support the campaign, the Take-A-Seat pledge form is located here (PLEDGE FORM).

Oh, I almost forgot—the humor! Take another look at this video: TAKE A LOOK. You have to admit, not that many folks are willing to be quite this silly to raise money!