This is the 4th and last Trustee Weekend of the year, if you don't count the June retreat.
It's remarkable, really: dozens of past-parents, parents, alumni and friends of the school--many of them successful in the dog-eat-dog world of business and finance--sacrificing another weekend togther with nothing in common but the best interest of this school.
Their debate is terribly serious: shall we borrow a few million dollars--at very low bond rates--and dive into the $6M Maxwell Savage renovation project....or should we wait till we raise all of the money? With 70% of the operating budget going to salaries and benefits, how would debt service impact the program? What does it mean that we just filled the school for 2003-04 with the strongest applicant pool in history, or that we've raised $31,333,000 since 7/97? The discussion is impassioned but civil. In fact the only scrap that broke out was between Bob Usen's little Shitsu "Nikko" and the Peobodys' diminutive Chihuahua-poodle cross "Toto" who hails from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Here's Bill with the winner of that brief dogfight:
Betsy Peobody with the combatants between committee meetings:
