TRUSTEES VISIT CAMPUS Board Convenes For Annual Spring Meeting
By Maddie Broder ’09
Editor
A faint round of applause could be heard in the dining hall on Tuesday, April 8th, when Mr. Yanelli announced that there would be no sit-down lunch on Friday. The Trustees’ two-day visit to campus on Thursday and Friday for their quarterly Board of Trustees meeting caused a disruption in the normal lunch schedule, although their arrival was otherwise inconspicuous—except for an older Cadillac with the license plate “Choate,” spotted outside the X.
The Trustees come to Choate in October, January, April, and June. The typical Trustee visit involves three components. Upon arrival, the chairs of the standing committees discuss the events of the following two days to ensure a fluid visit. The Committees include: the Audit Committee, which oversees the school’s finances; the Buildings and Grounds Committee, which examines school policy on its physical plant; the Development Campaign; the Financing Committee, which handles the school’s bonds, budget, and surplus; the Student Life Committee, whose primary focus during this Trustee visit was an evaluation of the college process; and the Trusteeship Committee, which identifies possible candidates for board chairs.
Following the smaller committee meetings, all twenty-seven Trustees meet on Friday in the Rutz-Reez dining hall. This meeting is called the general session. The Rutz-Rees dining hall was given a polishing for this quarter’s meeting. A U-shaped table faced a projection screen. Board members had small dishes of candy at their places. This year Lauren Provini ’08 and history teacher Richard Stewart were the student and faculty representatives and Choate graduate and financial contributor Ben Walton was the guest speaker. After these special speakers, the minutes were approved and Headmaster Shanahan addressed the group. Updates were given from the Capital Campaign and the Buildings and Grounds Committee. The Buildings and Grounds Committee reported on the new dorms, which it had toured the previous day to “see how grand they are,” said Shanahan.
The meeting then segued into an executive session, during which only the Trustees and senior Choate administrators were present. The Trusteeship committee gave its report. This group is responsible for keeping the board thriving as a whole. “We like to see a matrix of expertise and demographics on the board,” said Shanahan.
The second item on the agenda for executive session was a report on the capital campaign. The campaign, which hopes to raise $ 200 million by 2011, has already raised $ 136 million. “We’ve been very lucky up to this point, but we are hoping the economy will settle,” said Shanahan. The money for the campaign comes from the school’s alumni and students’ parents, an especially generous group. “Our parents’ giving is unmatched by any other school,” said Shanahan.
Two issues that might have been of concern to the Trustees this year are the number of senior faculty leaving the school and the faculty turnover in the College Counseling Office. Among faculty leaving in June are veteran teachers Anne Nesslage and Konthath Menon as well as David Doster, Paul Tines, David Quarfoot, and Language Department Head, Scott Mattoon. In the College Office, Director Dean Jacoby’s departure and the new leadership of current counselor Tina Grant this Fall means that the Office will have yet another new director after a run of several new persons in that position in recent years. Mr. Shanahan explained that the Trustees were not particularly concerned with either of these issues. “There is nothing unusual about this year. We always have between twelve and fifteen faculty members leaving.” This year, eight faculty members are relocating, three are retiring, and four are leaving because they were on one-year contracts. “We are losing some great folks, though,” said Shanahan.
On the College Counseling Office, “I don’t think the Board is worried about this,” said Shanahan. “I think the parents of rising seniors get nervous, but not the Trustees.” Mr. Shanahan explained that the college application landscape has changed, but Choate is still “pulling in high numbers of accepted students.”
The Trustees will return in June to swear in new members of the board and attend graduation.
