The Board of Trustees approved the Strategic Iniatives Fund last year to finance aspects of the program that reach beyond the scope of the regular school year program. These include the ACE Scholars program, Math and Science for Minority Students (MS2), and the Institute for Recruitmenet of Teachers (IRT). To raise the new resource, fundraisers will approach specific donors who would likely support certain projects. President of the Board of Trustees Oscar Tang said the money will come from fundraising, although it has not been raised yet. Tang also said, “It will eventually have to be funded by new fundraisers. In order to get moving, we sort of have to start the process before the fundraising [has] caught up.” He said, “You can take a chance because you know you have the financial resources. If, God forbid, nobody responded to the fundraising, that amount of spending still could be covered [by a larger] draw from the endowment.” Tang also said, “We are lucky in the sense that we do have our [successful] endowment. I think that this will be money which will be raised, it’s just that we committed to spend it before we knew it could be raised.” Since the Strategic Plan, Parts of the budget have also been reallocated to fund other projects on campus. Classrooms have begun to be upgraded with technology. After Sam Phil was redone this past summer, the number of buildings in which all classrooms are media classrooms totals to three, Gelb and Pearson being the other two. “Our goal is to have all classrooms be media classrooms eventually,” said Carter. “My time line, which may not be others’ time line, is the next couple of years.” Some of the budget has been reallocated to allow for these renovations. Several new programs provide more opportunities for students as a direct result of the Strategic Plan, such as the ACE Scholar Program and Associate Dean fo CAMD Raj Mundra’s service trip to India. Parts of the budget have been re-allocated to finance these programs, though nothing has been cut from the budget. The Abbot Academy Association also contributed. When asked how effective these changes have been, Carter said that it was hard to tell. “We’ve been effective in terms of getting kids here,” he remarked. “The global programs are just the beginning.” The changes that have come about in other areas of the school as a result of the Strategic Plan, such as the global programs, all have affected the budget, which must continually be adapted to meet these needs. As administrators plan PA’s next capital campaign, they will focus on using it as a tool to finance the Strategic Plan.
