February 12th 2009

Dear Parents,                               

2009/10 and Mulgrave Re-Enrolment

At this time I need to ask you to familiarize yourself with the re-enrolment process for the next school year at Mulgrave.    I would be grateful if you would give this your careful attention at this time as we are requesting that you complete re-enrolment on line by Friday 6th March, 2009. 

Tuition fees are set by the Board based on the preliminary budget prepared by the School administration and carefully reviewed by the Finance Committee of the Board.  In these uncertain times, the Board has recognized the need to tighten our belts and to keep fees at as low a level as possible without damaging quality of service.  In particular, we want to ensure that our teachers are suitably looked after.  We feel they must be remunerated at least as well as the public school teachers in BC.  This year, the public schools have an automatic increase in their school board salaries of two and one half percent across their salary scale by way of a Province wide agreement. 

The Board has therefore authorized us to issue the enclosed Schedule of Fees for 2009/10.  The significant points to note are:

1.  The student school fees for 2009/10 have been set at two and one half percent above the basic fees for each grade in the current year.

2. All other fees, including Consolidated Extras, have been frozen at the current levels.

3. The Board has again decided to grant parents, with more than one child enrolled in the school, financial relief in the form of a reduction of $500 in tuition fees payable for the second, third and fourth child enrolled in the School.

4. The International Student Fee, paid by those students who are not eligible for the BC Government grant, is set at $2,500.

In our planning for next year, it is important for us to know about your plans as early as possible.  Until we have re-enrolment numbers, we have to be careful about how many new students we can admit and how many teachers we can employ.  In these challenging times, it is difficult to predict how the economic downturn will impact on independent schools.  Certainly at Mulgrave we have not so far seen any decline in demand.  In fact, just the opposite.  But we do need to know your individual preliminary plans before the Spring Break and, if you are going to secure a place for your child at Mulgrave for September 2009, we need to receive your non-refundable deposit of $2,000 by 30th March, 2009. (Please see the enclosed guidelines sheet for on line re-enrolment.)

In order to facilitate parents whose children will not be attending Mulgrave in 2009/10, we are also providing a “Notice of Withdrawal” form on our re-enrolment page of the web site.

If responding to us by these re-enrolment deadlines presents you with difficulties, please contact me directly and I will do my best to respond to your concerns.

I continue to be impressed by the energy and enthusiasm which generates such a dynamic atmosphere in the School and very much look forward to having our current students back with us in September. In the meantime, I thank you for your attention to our re-enrolment requirements.

Sincerely,

Tony Macoun
Head of School
tmacoun@mulgrave.com