From a student’s perspective, Brophy’s financial situation may seem very unclear and confusing. Sure, the school takes in money and then spends it for a variety of different purposes, but how is the money actually divided up? And what areas of the school get more than others?
It all starts with the operating budget. The vast majority of the money for the budget comes from three sources of income: tuition, fees and student activities such as ticket sales from sports. Other small means of making money, including sales from the Varsity Shop, contribute to the budget.
According to Brophy’s annual report, the tuition and fees paid by students’ families made up 87.6% of the school’s revenue from the 2022-2023 school year. Activities, athletics and sales made up for 11.4% with the “other” category only adding up to 1% total revenue.
“Operating revenues [money obtained from the above categories] are meant to cover the cost of providing an education,” said Brophy’s Chief Financial Officer Mrs. Jill Zimmerman.
After taking in all of this money, the business office builds a budget for the next year in order to decide how to spread it across Brophy. It divides Brophy’s money into groups where it will be spent respectively.
The office starts by looking at what was spent the previous year, adding in margins of error to account for an increase of inflation or certain factors such as cost of living. Then, Mrs. Colleen Maruster, Brophy’s controller, and Mrs. Zimmerman meet with each department director to discuss their specific budget needs. This includes individuals such as Athletic Director Mr. Josh Garcia, Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs Mr. Seamus Walsh, Director of Student Activities Mr. Pete Burr and Loyola Academy Director Ms. Kendra Krause. To clarify, this is separate from the head of departments such as the math or english department.
“We try to budget where we have a little bit more revenue than expenses because things come up during the year that you don’t know about, that haven’t been budgeted and all of a sudden you have an extra $50,000,” said Mrs. Zimmerman.
The first and largest expense, taking up 67.1%, is paying the salaries and benefits of faculty and staff members. Brophy teachers’ salaries are determined with a pay scale, which factors in educational achievements and the time they have spent working at Brophy. For example, a new staff member with a master’s degree will earn more than one with a bachelor’s degree. Every year they teach at Brophy, teachers’ pay rises by a small percentage.
“With most schools, the way your budget works is that two-thirds of your budget relates to the people,” said Mrs. Zimmerman.
Next are instructional expenses. These mainly include academic programs like Canvas or digital textbooks, as well as digital licenses for Microsoft, Adobe and more. Slightly different are operating expenses, which encapsulate many little things that keep the school running, such as business insurance or gas for the school’s buses.
The third category are facilities expenses, paying for necessities such as air conditioning, electricity, water, and building repairs. These three categories combine for 16.6% of the expenses.
Another large category is activities and athletics, which take up 9.3%. Athletics money is spent in a variety of ways, including uniforms and equipment. The final significant category of expenses is financial aid. For students in need, Brophy shoulders some of the cost for not only tuition, but also activities, trips, meals and more. This takes up 6.9% of the expenses.
“Each year we start working on the budget…we started in December working on the budget for next year [2024-2025],” said Mrs. Zimmerman. The reason for the early start is because the Board of Trustees need to approve the cost of tuition for the following year. “In order to know what we need to set tuition at next year, we need to know what our budget is going to be for operating expenses.” For the 2024-2025 school year, the tuition will be set at $19,100.
None of the categories above receive any funding from donations. Fundraisers only account for expenses outside the operating budget such as last year’s 50 million dollar campaign to establish an endowment fund for financial aid or the 2024 Power Breakfast calling for donations towards the expansion of the Brophy Sports Complex.
