What does the The Fund for St. Michael's actually fund?
Each year, gifts to the Fund for St. Michael’s enrich the educational experience of all St. Michael’s students. While tuition covers the basic costs of educating our students, the Fund for St. Michael’s provides the resources to take our budget "above and beyond" and offer an extraordinary educational experience in an exceptional environment.
The Fund for St. Michael’s invests money in all areas which are critical to delivering a top quality education, allowing the school to stretch their budget. When the school may budget for 50 new desks, the Fund for St. Michael's allows the school to purchase 70. Or if the school budgets to buy 20 new computers, your investment helps us stretch that purchase to 30 new computers. We take seriously the responsibility of stretching every single donated dollar as FAR AS POSSIBLE for the sake of our student's education. Other examples include:
- TECHNOLOGY: Expand technology offerings for students by offering up-to-date hardware and software for our student's research and design skills. Examples include Mac computers with full, updated Adobe software licenses, cameras and lights for digital photography classes, and drones and printers for our STEM classes.
- FAITH FORMATION: Providing financial resources to pay food and accommodation fees for students to attend the junior year Kairos retreat, supplies for grade-level class retreats, and other experiential educational and spiritual-life offerings such as bringing transformative guest speakers to campus, paying postage to send relief supplies to disaster areas for victims of earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, or tsunamis, or providing resources that allow our students to lobby at the Roundhouse or attend seminars or presentations by local or visiting professionals in the Santa Fe Community.
- ATHLETICS & MUSIC: Enhance athletic and fine arts offerings such as purchasing more uniforms of higher quality for our sports teams, risers and sheet music for our Choral Arts programs, better safety equipment for sports like dance and cheer, new chess sets for the chess team, or new instruments for the band or Orchestra.
- STEM: Update and expand science labs by purchasing new tools and instruments such as robotics kits, 3D printers, conductors, spectroscopes, tuning forks, flasks and weights, viewfinders, mirrors, and dissection frogs/crayfish/earthworms/pigs/spinal cords/cow eyes/kidneys/pig hearts/ and rats.
- TUITION ASSISTANCE: Ensure all students who want this education, get it - regardless of their financial situation. Families stretch to make this educational investment a reality. Your gifts allow the administration to give tuition assistance to families that need it, when they need it, in an amount that ACTUALLY makes a difference.