Dear Putney Community,
Putney has great strengths. The school’s momentum is exciting: our new dorms are open and the Old Girls dorm is getting a facelift. We are proud that nearly half of our students receive financial aid and that our financial aid budget (at 24% of tuition) exceeds that of most of our independent school peers. Putney recently completed renovations to Reynolds Building classrooms, our study abroad programs were reinvigorated, and we continue to seek the perfect balance between student autonomy and agency to create singular Putney magic. Putney’s alumni and families are loyal (our annual fund is soaring to new heights), and we are nearing the end of our ambitious capital campaign to invigorate our facilities. Our endowment is small, but meaningful. The school sits on a solid foundation and has a strong reputation in the world of secondary education.
At the same time, Putney continues to experience rising costs to deliver our program, and we are operating in a globally competitive enrollment environment. We recognize that we cannot simply increase tuition again and again above inflation to cover expenses. We are not alone in facing this paradigm—many small, tuition-driven boarding schools in the United States are in crisis right now. Putney is not, thanks to our many strengths and careful stewardship of our mission and finances. But, as you would want us to be, we have to remain vigilant.
With this reality in mind, the board of trustees recently mandated that we proactively bring our expenses more conservatively in line with our resources. Overall, Putney was able to identify the savings necessary to balance the budget for the next fiscal year while retaining the vast majority of our full-time employees. We also maintained the level of benefits that are available to all employees, and offered compensation increases to help offset the increased cost of living. Finally, we preserved the core aspects of Putney’s program, including all current offerings in various arts disciplines in some form, and the parts of our farm program that engage the most students. One heartbreaking outcome of this realignment was that we will have a slightly smaller staff next year, as we will consolidate some offerings and reimagine how to deliver some of our programs.
Adjusting to a world of changing demands while living within our means is what we all must do, but reducing expenses is hard. We will continue to invest substantial resources in Putney’s pillars, including the farm and the arts. These are the two areas in which Putney rightly invests the largest amount of money compared to other departments, and this will continue. We will also continue to prioritize diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts. DEI is not a political ideology for Putney; it is the right thing to do to help us meet the promise of our mission and fundamental beliefs—for every student on this hill.
The mission of The Putney School is more relevant than ever. The work we are doing to strengthen Putney now will help ensure our school is thriving in the future. You can help us, too. As we are a tuition-driven school, the most important thing you can do is help us identify our next students. Make sure everyone you know hears about Putney. As always, please consider making a donation to our annual fund, contribute to the capital campaign, or strengthen our endowment through a bequest. Stewarding the Putney experiment is a collective responsibility, and we are glad you are part of the effort.
Daniel O’Brien
Head of School
John MacIntosh P’20, ’23
Chair of the Board of Trustees