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The Leo Baeck Day School
| January 30, 2013
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FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT
 Dear Leo Baeck Parents,
Earlier this month, you received an update on tuition for the 2013/14 school year. As Eric Petersiel stressed, we appreciate the significant financial commitment and investment you are making.
Our school's finances rest on a delicate balance of revenues and expenses, calibrated as precisely as possible to ensure the quality and stability of our students' experience while carefully stewarding the investment that families make in our mission through tuition.
We see you as partners in fulfilling the mission of The Leo Baeck Day School. You are the single greatest influence in your child's life, and you are a vitally important investor in our school.
In the interest of supporting and advancing that ongoing partnership, we have developed the following tool to provide greater insight into how your tuition investment is used to provide an excellent education for our children - and to explain the interrelationships between tuition and other revenue streams, such as philanthropy. We hope you find this information helpful. I invite you to contact me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions, or if you would simply like to continue the conversation.
Our work together will resonate for generations, as our children grow up and make unique and powerful contributions to the world.
Richard Davis
Board President.
president@leobaeck.ca
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WHAT REVENUE STREAMS SUPPORT THE LEO BAECK DAY SCHOOL?
- The operating budget for the 2012/13 school year reflects revenues of just over $12 million.
- Our current enrollment is 915 students.
- Tuition accounts for about 94% of our revenue.
- A small grant from UJA Federation (representing about 2% of our revenue) partially offsets the cost of providing tuition remission, or reduced tuition, for students whose families qualify - currently about 12% of all students. The UJA grant applies only to students in grade one and above; LBDS fully absorbs the cost of providing tuition remission for children in our preschool.
- The Leo Baeck Day School receives no funding from the government and no funding from UJA, other than the small tuition remission grant referenced above.
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HOW ARE TUITION DOLLARS SPENT?
- As a nonprofit organization, our budgeting philosophy is to manage the school to break even. In other words, we budget to spend only what we project to have in revenue - which, as noted above, is composed almost entirely of your tuition
 dollars.
- Like most independent schools, we spend about 80% of your tuition dollars on recruiting and retaining the professionals who shape the education of our students. Staffing is our largest expenditure - and our most important one.
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The other 20% goes to: Occupancy and Plant expenses 11%, Educational Resources 3%, Other 6% (Includes Departmental Budgets, Office & General, PD, Legal & Audit, Memberships, etc.)
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HOW ARE BUILDING FUND FEES ALLOCATED?
- Your building levy is allocated to our Building Fund, which provides a stable source of revenue to ensure that the school can protect our collective investment in our facilities and capital assets.
- The Building Fund supports small capital expenditures that are not of sufficient scale to warrant fundraising through a capital campaign (see below) and covers the cost of technology, furniture, and fixtures, and necessary repairs and renovations.
- The Building Fund has provided seed money for major renovations at both campuses, as well as smaller projects such as the new North Campus playground.
- Your building levy is fully tax-receiptable, and can be paid over five years.
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HOW DO WE BUDGET AND ENSURE PRUDENT FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT?
- Early each fall, we begin the budgeting process
 for the following year. We follow a "bottom-up" approach; that is, we start by estimating next year's enrollment, use that enrollment projection to estimate our total projected costs, and ultimately determine the total revenue needed to meet our estimated expenses. This calculation determines tuition levels for the following year.
- We follow a tiered budgeting process that encourages input and establishes oversight on several levels. The administrative team prepares the budget. The Finance Committee - consisting of Alan Maresky (Treasurer), Laurie Davis, Geoff Rotstein, Mark Katz, Erika Rubin, and Justin Beber - reviews the budget in detail, in the context of trends and benchmarks and presents the budget to the full Board of Directors for final approval.
- Our financial statements are audited annually, and statements are available for review by any member of the Leo Baeck Day School. (All parents are members.) The Treasurer presents a financial report at our Annual Meeting in June, to which all members are invited.
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 WHY DO WE NEED TO RAISE PHILANTHROPIC FUNDS?
- Unfortunately, no independent school can thrive on the strength of tuition alone. We are mindful of the limits of our families' capacity, and we could never raise tuition to levels that would meet all of our school's needs.
- Best practices followed by independent schools across North America incorporate fundraising as a key revenue driver that is essential for a stable, sustainable independent school.
- Philanthropy supports such things as: technology enhancements, tuition assistance, family education, Respectful School Initiative, development of Senior and Junior Siddurim and Tikkun Olam projects.
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HOW ARE PHILANTHROPIC FUNDS RAISED AND SPENT?
- At The Leo Baeck Day School, there are two streams of philanthropic revenue and corresponding expenditures: Annual and Capital.
- Our Annual Campaign enriches our ability to fulfill our mission through our day-to-day activities. It supports programs and initiatives that enhance our students' education in real time, during the current school year, supplementing the annual tuition revenue we receive.
- Every year, our Annual Campaign funds an array of exciting initiatives that help differentiate The Leo Baeck Day School as a high-quality provider of rigorous academ
 ic experience in the context of Jewish values. Our Annual Campaign has made the following programs possible:
outfitting each classroom at both campuses with a SMARTBOARD, iPad labs at both campuses, professional development for our staff through the Faculty Fund, a brand new North Campus playground, tuition assistance for families in need, and Respectful School programs for students.
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Unlike our Annual Campaign, which happens every year, Capital Campaigns are finite fundraising efforts designed to support a specific capital project that is usually of significant scale. Our current Capital Campaign is raising funds for the purchase and renovation of our New South Campus. We also ran a Capital Campaign to fund the North Campus Dan Family Middle School addition - and, in fact, the current North Campus itself was built with funds raised during an earlier Capital Campaign.
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For more information, or to volunteer your time and expertise to help sustain our school, please contact: Richard Davis, Board President, president@leobaeck.caor Eric Petersiel, Head of School, epetersiel@leobaeck.ca
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