Dear ACS Families,
I am writing to you today to announce the U.S. dollar ancillary fee for the '23/'24 school year. We are announcing this earlier than most schools because we believe it is vital for families to have this information as early as possible.
As many parents are well aware, our faculty and staff have borne a large share of the financial burden of the current economic crisis. During the current school year, we are paying all faculty and staff 40% of their salaries in fresh USD. While this is an improvement over last year, many of our employees are experiencing genuine financial hardship. Moreover, paying 40% of salaries in fresh USD is not enough to continue to retain talented faculty and to recruit exceptional new teachers. Moreover, we incurred a significant budget deficit for the current year in order to keep the ancillary fee as low as possible. We cannot do this going forward.
After ongoing meetings with a task force consisting of faculty and staff representatives, members of the Parents' Committee, and a few ACS trustees, I recommended to the Finance Committee of the ACS Board of Trustees that we pay all ACS faculty and staff 70% of their salaries for the 2023/2024 school year in fresh USD. The Finance Committee unanimously agreed with this proposal, and the entire ACS Board did the same at our Board meeting in New York at the end of November.
Paying all employees 70% of their salaries in fresh USD and, at the same time, ensuring that we have a balanced budget requires an increase of the ancillary fee from $4,500 to $11,000 USD per student and the one-time capital fee for new students from $3,500 to $4,000. There will likely be an increase in the lira-based tuition as well to meet increased lira expenses as a result of the continued devaluation of the currency, which will be announced later in the spring.
The ACS Parents' Committee understands that we must pay faculty and staff better than we currently are and has been supportive of our efforts to do so. They did, however, raise the very important concern that some ACS families would not be able to afford ACS with this high ancillary fee. This is immensely important concern to us as well.
To meet an expected increase in financial aid requests, the Finance Committee increased the fresh USD financial aid budget from $13,000 USD this year to $675,000 next year. The financial aid budget is not coming from the operating budget; rather, we will have to meet this need with an aggressive fundraising effort. Our goal is that NO student will have to leave ACS next year for financial reasons. Information about the financial aid process as well as the current financial aid application are available through the Admissions tab on our website.
I know that the jump in the ancillary is far larger than most expected, and I am sorry that I am not able to give better news. Still, if we are to maintain the quality of an ACS education, to retain and attract talented faculty and staff, and to invest in and maintain our campus and facilities, it is necessary to do this. As we make our way back to pre-crisis levels of tuition and fees at ACS, something that will likely happen over the next three years, we will do our best to ensure that future ancillary fee increases are much more manageable and modest. We'll be looking at creative ways to manage costs and increase revenues over this period. I have provided additional facts about the decision in this document.
I want to thank all of you for choosing ACS for your children. We will continue to work on initiatives that will enhance the education that your children are receiving. Our goal is to provide an experience that will help children to excel academically and professionally, and to lead meaningful, balanced lives.
Sincerely,
