A group of alumni and supporters from Baltimore County’s private Oldfields School, which officials announced would close this year, said it’s made an agreement with the board of trustees to keep the all-girls school open if they raise $20 million by May 10. The board said the school needs $35 million.
Kirsten Porter, who was in the Class of 1991 and is the parent of a current student, said Sunday that an “aggressive” fundraising effort has begun after Nancy Palmer, the interim head of Oldfields who also sits on the board of trustees, agreed to the tight fundraising deadline. The $20 million would extend the school’s life by three years, but $35 million is needed for five years, Porter said.
“I think we’ll be able to do it easily,” said Porter, who said her phone was “blowing up with donations” Sunday afternoon.
She said the amount they’ve received is still being calculated.
Jen Molina-Mabe, a spokesperson for Oldfields, said in a statement that the board of trustees projected a need of $35 million to invest into the school; $5 million would go toward urgent capital improvement projects, $15 million would cover operating losses; and the remaining $15 million would replenish the school’s endowment. The $35 million figure was shared with alumni over the weekend.
Oldfields was founded in 1867 in Sparks Glencoe. The girls boarding and day school announced April 19 its decision to close by the end of the academic year because of “recent trends and obstacles” that have challenged private schools nationwide.
The school currently educates about 100 students in eighth through 12th grades, down from about 180 in 2016.
Tuition at Oldfields is $35,700 for day students and $64,150 for boarding students, according to its website. The school plans to offer current students the option to join Garrison Forest School, a K-12 girls boarding and day school in Owings Mills, though Palmer said in an April 24 letter to alumni that the deal was not complete.
A former Oldfields student, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said she applauds efforts to save the school but that raising $20 million is only a temporary solution. Even if the alumni group manages to raise $35 million, the school does not have enough students enrolled to sustain operations, she said.
“It’s not fair to give these students now false hope,” the former student said. “They need to understand what their future looks like, and there’s too many cooks in the kitchen trying to get this effort underway.”
If the fundraising initiative falls short of $20 million, donations will go toward supporting faculty and students, Porter said. Some staff who live on campus face losing both their jobs and their home.
Any additional funds raised will be used for efforts to purchase 9 acres of historical land on the campus, including the school’s main administrative building, for alumni use, Porter said in a letter Sunday to the school community.
One avenue to raise funds is an “Adopt a Grad” program, through which members of the alumni association and the community can “adopt” one of 17 graduating seniors starting Monday. The adoption into the alumni association will include a graduation party fundraiser.
The school’s current financial crisis is not its first — the school sought more financial support from graduates and families in 2007 as a lack of funds tied to lower enrollment threatened to close the school within two years.
In her letter, Porter questioned the ability of school leadership to keep it afloat, stating that the group believes donating money directly to the school would lead to a “repeat of what has occurred in the past” — leaving the doors to the school open while also leaving the community “in the dark until the next crisis.”
Aiming for long-term stability if they meet their goal, the group is organizing an “advisory cabinet” of school community members to guide the institution’s leadership, and is working on its own strategic plan for the school, Porter wrote in the letter. That plan would focus on greater financial transparency and supervision of day-to-day operations, and require newer, more sustainable enrollment and fundraising initiatives, according to the letter.
“We want to create a movement; not an institution,” Porter wrote. “Institutions die; movements progress.”
Other historic private schools in the Baltimore area have closed under similar circumstances in recent years.
The Institute of Notre Dame in East Baltimore abruptly closed at the end of the school year in June 2020, after educating girls for 170 years. The school, which was at the time Maryland’s oldest Catholic college preparatory school for girls, cited declining enrollment, financial difficulties and a need for more than $5 million in building repairs as some of the reasons for its closure.
Lauren Shapiro, who graduated from Oldfields in 2002 and is the parent to a rising junior there, said she is participating in the effort to save the school for the sake of herself, her daughter and her 21-month-old, who Shaprio wishes has the opportunity to attend Oldfields in the future.
Shapiro said alumni weekend, which took place the last weekend of April, was a great opportunity for alumni to meet, brainstorm and plan their efforts to save the school, a shift from organizing through WhatsApp and phone calls. She said alumni weekend helped provide clarity that the board is willing to work with alumni.
“I hope that we can pull this off,” Shapiro said.
Baltimore Sun reporters Dan Belson and Lillian Reed contributed to this article.
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