BUILDING DREAMS FAQs

Annual gifts are raised each year from parents, faculty and staff, grandparents, and alumni families. These gifts allow Blue Oak to provide outstanding educational opportunities for students and support our dedicated teachers in the year they are given.   Gifts to Building Dreams are larger gifts paid over a period of time and will significantly enhance Blue Oak for the future.

The Blue Oak Board of Trustees has achieved 100% participation in the Building Dreams campaign!  By the end of the campaign, all families will be given an opportunity to help make these amazing enhancements available for our students and faculty.

Blue Oak will seek funding through a combination of philanthropic giving, corporate sponsors, individual gifts as well as from a modest increase in enrollment.

It would not be financially prudent for the school to assume additional long term debt. The debt service on increased debt would negatively impact the school’s ability to deliver its exceptional programs.

We have engaged the architectural firm, Ratcliff, (hyper link to: https://ratcliffarch.com/), an award winning, cutting-edge leader in innovative design, to help us achieve one overarching purpose:  to support a growth mindset with flexible, nimble spaces.

We are planning to begin construction in 2020 if sufficient funds have been raised through the Building Dreams campaign.

55% of families receive some level of financial assistance.

1/3 of tuition revenue is returned in financial assistance. In addition, the school seeks philanthropic support from individuals, foundations and corporations for financial aid.

Unlike tuition income and annual fund gifts, an endowment provides a stable source of revenue for decades to come.

• An endowment strengthens the position of the school by smoothing out the cycles of unpredictable ups and downs of economic change.
• Every dollar invested in Blue Oak’s endowment is multiplied as the endowment grows and generates income for the school.
• Endowment helps to buffer the need for ever-higher tuition by providing a non-tuition-based source of income.
• The amount of a school’s endowment is a key indicator of a school’s competitive strength and long-term viability.

Endowments funds are invested to preserve both the corpus (principal) and the spending power of endowments.  In other words, endowment management seeks to provide a comparable level of return to future generations as the current beneficiaries receive, taking inflation into account.  Historically, many institutions have been able to exceed this investment goal.