wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Menaul School faces April funding deadline

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Note #7636 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Menaul School faces April funding deadline
03146
March 20, 2003

Menaul School faces April funding deadline

General Assembly Council to consider $900,000 loan

by Amy Starr Redwine
The Presbyterian Outlook 
Reprinted with permission

ALBUQUERQUE - Menaul School, a PC(USA)-affiliated secondary school here, is
facing an economic crisis which must be resolved by April. 
	
To continue operation, the school is seeking $1 million in loans - $900,000
from the General Assembly and $100,000 from the Synod of the Southwest. The
good news for the school is that the synod has approved a $200,000 loan. 
	
On the other hand, the General Assembly Council (GAC), which must approve the
largest loan, doesn't meet until the first week in April. 
	
That leaves Menaul School administrator Michael Gaylor in the position of
trying to guess what the GAC will do, and whether the school will have enough
funds to complete the current year, let alone have classes next fall.
	
In the past fiscal year, the college-preparatory school, which has an
enrollment of approximately 350 students in grades six through twelve,
received $1.1 million in donations. This year, they have received only
$608,000.
	
The drop-off in giving has occurred primarily in the area of private donors. 
	
"We have more donors today than we've ever had in the past," says Gaylor. "So
we get more support, but that support is less in terms of individual gifts." 
	
 Last year $315,000 of the budget came from the PC(USA)'s Christmas Joy
Offering. Private donors, including churches and individuals, accounted for
$762,000. This year, the amount of money coming to the school from private
donors has decreased by half. 
	
With 61 percent of its student body made up of students of color, Menaul
School is one of eight ethnic schools and colleges affiliated with the
PC(USA), and one of only two secondary schools so affiliated. Of the
students, 44 percent are Hispanic, 13 percent Native American, 3 percent
African American, 2 percent Asian and the balance are Anglo. 
	
Over the last several years, tuition has increased. For the 2002-2003 year it
is $7,700; for the 2003-4 year it will be $9,500. The school offers between
$350,000 and $400,000 per year - the equivalent of 10 percent of the school's
budget - in financial aid, but, according to Gaylor, this doesn't meet the
need. 
	
Pre-paid tuition is received in late spring, and in past years, Menaul School
has tapped into this money to pay for the previous year's operating budget.
But at the February board meeting, members decided this was no longer an
appropriate means of keeping the school operational. 
	
As a result, the school will put pre-paid tuition funds in escrow and seek
other means of additional support, including asking for the General Assembly
and synod loans. Gaylor says its the first time in the school's 122-year
history that it has asked the General Assembly for a loan.
	
Although Menaul School finds itself in the middle of a tremendous financial
crisis, none of those affiliated with the school are thinking of giving up.
	
"This is the most difficult position I've ever been in with an organization,"
says Gaylor, who came to Menaul School in May 2000. "If we get through this
year there will have to be changes made in how the school operates while at
the same time honoring our historic mission. But I do believe we can come out
of this stronger than we've ever been."
	
"We're in a prayerful mood. We're in a hopeful mood. We're saying to
ourselves: this is an institution worth saving," says the Rev. Frank Yates,
board member and pastor of St. Andrew church, Albuquerque.
	
Menaul School was founded in 1881 by Sheldon Jackson, who arrived in
Albuquerque at a time when doing ministry in the western U.S. earned him the
title of "foreign missionary." For most of its history, the institution
served as a boarding school for places in northern New Mexico and Native
American reservations that did not have adequate secondary education. 
	
In 1972, the national church turned over control of Menaul School to a local
board of trustees. Since then, the Christmas Joy Offering has constituted the
major part of financial support the school receives from the denomination. In
addition, the school receives generous amounts of money from churches around
the country. 
	
"We would not be here if not for the Presbyterian Church," adds Gaylor.
	
In May 2000, the boarding program closed. Now, although the school still
strives to fulfill the historical mission of serving students indigenous to
New Mexico, its students come primarily from Albuquerque and the surrounding
areas. 
	
According to Gaylor, Menaul School has always lived on a shoestring. At one
point, the school sold off land in order to meet operating budgets, but that
money has since been depleted. Part of the problem is that tuition costs are
too low to support the school. 
	
Yates believes that "the heart of the problem is that we don't have an
endowment." 
	
According to Gary Luhr, executive director of the Association of Presbyterian
Colleges and Universities, however, the biggest problem faced by most
educational institutions is a decrease in endowment funds due to the
declining value of the stock market. Nevertheless, Luhr believes that Menaul
School is in a uniquely difficult financial position.
	
The school's long term goal is to establish an endowment program. In the
meantime, if giving increases and loans are approved, the funds will be
allocated first to financial aid, then to instruction and instructional
support, says Gaylor.
	
"Students whose families have attended Menaul School for generations don't
have the resources to pay for tuition," remarks Gaylor. "So the more
financial aid we can provide, the more students we can help." 

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