Saint George's School Begins Aggressive Drive for Capital Improvements and Increase Endowment

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Saint George's School, Spokane's only K-12 independent school, has launched a $10 million capital campaign in conjunction with its upcoming 50th Anniversary in 2005.

The school's board, led by President Kristi Blake, launched the campaign to improve its outdated and limited athletic facilities by building a large, multi-sport, athletic center, and build its endowment to support faculty professional development and financial aid to ensure accessibility to a diverse student population.

To date, Saint George's major support for the campaign has come from all of the board trustees as well as generous benefactors from across the country. The Pacific Northwest Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Saint George's School a $3.5 million challenge grant to support the 50th Anniversary Campaign. The foundation released an initial $2.5 million of the grant, which will be followed by the remaining $1 million when the school obtains an additional $2.5 million in contributions toward the capital campaign from sources other than the foundation. The grant stipulates the additional $2.5 million must be raised by June 30, 2004.
  
"We appreciate the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's substantial contribution to support Saint George's program," Blake said. "Every student who walks through Saint George's door will benefit from the opportunities our campaign will provide."

Saint George's has an enrollment of 364 students, and expects to cap enrollment at 460 students within the next 10 years.

The $6 million, 26,000-square-foot Errol Schmidt Athletic Center will include two full courts with seating for 800 in the competition court area, space for concessions, offices for the athletic director and physical education staff, a training room, and spacious team and P.E. locker rooms. New, paved parking space will be added; however, capacity is limited by the proximity of the Little Spokane River, which flows through the campus.

Background on Campaign and Anniversary Activities

The school's goal is to break ground on the athletic facility this summer and finish the balance of the campaign, including the celebration of the 50th anniversary, over the next two to three years. The combined capital campaign and anniversary celebration will include a number of fun events, which will bring the school's many friends and alumni back to the campus to celebrate Saint George's past, present, and future.

The first of those events occurred in January during a home basketball game night when the Saint George's School community honored one of its most beloved teacher-coaches by announcing the "Errol Schmidt Athletic Center" as the moniker of the new facility. Schmidt taught and coached hundreds of Middle School students at Saint George's for 35 years before retiring this year. His unique, patient, insightful teaching and coaching style inspired students of all academic and athletic abilities to do their best in math, science, basketball, baseball, and life.

"For 35 of our school's nearly 50 years, Errol helped create an atmosphere of hard work and fun," Blake said. "He epitomizes the values we aspire to and the sense of community that is so important to Saint George's School. We have been truly blessed to know him as a teacher, coach, and friend."

Schmidt's coaching had a great deal to do with Saint George's School's reputation for its State B championship girls' and boys' basketball teams, which have created great rivalries around Eastern Washington that provide tremendous excitement at the annual tournament in Spokane. This is no small feat for a school whose teams have practiced and played in the same small gymnasium since 1964 – a gym that was constructed for a school of 155 students.

"We have a first-rate school that needs a first-rate gym," said Rich Hadley, Saint George's School Board of Trustees member and parent of a 10th-grader at the school.  "Our 50th Anniversary Campaign ensures our commitment to developing the intellectual, artistic, creative, and athletic potential of all students."

Through extensive study, the Board of Trustees learned that local public schools have an average of 410 square feet per student per P.E. class. Saint George's current facilities provide 137 square feet per student for classes.

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Saint George's School is a non-sectarian, coeducational, college preparatory day school that provides a challenging and stimulating liberal arts education. The school serves Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho families with young people in kindergarten through 12th grades.