Annual Fund
Tower relies on several sources of income, not just tuition, to maintain and enhance student programs. The Annual Fund makes up 4.5% of the school’s operating budget and helps cover the difference between total tuition revenue and what it costs to run the school. Here are a few of the many ways the Annual Fund impacts student learning:
- Expanding Spanish instruction to Kindergarten and 1st grade with the hiring of a third Spanish teacher.
- Redesigning our Pre-Kindergarten classroom, based on the tenets of the Reggio Emilia approach, to find a purposeful balance of child-directed learning and play while also building a foundation of early literacy and math skills.
- Implementing the Lucy Calkins Writers Workshop into the 5th grade Language Arts curriculum, teaching students to write "stories that matter," using authentic material from their lives and experiences.
- Growing our 8th grade “This I Believe” capstone project, where students combine their academic skills and personal voice in sharing the core values that guide their daily lives, to include presentations at all-school assemblies and a printed collection of essays.
- Adapting elements of Philips Exeter’s novel problem-solving approach to our Upper School mathematics program to ensure our students are flexible problem-solvers.
- Introducing a “School Climate Committee” to our Upper School service program. Students will engage in a leadership study and move forward in a group, with courage and empathy, to solve problems, to create solutions, to suggest programming to better their school community.
These are just a few of the many ways the generosity of our entire school community impacts our students' experience.
Thank you.
Meet our Team
JESSIE ACHTERHOF, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Jessie has been with Tower since 2007 and was appointed Director of Development in 2012. Prior to come to Tower, Jessie worked as the Assistant Director of Development at Collegiate School in New York. She is the parent of a Tower seventh grader and fifth grader.
CLINT BRODERICK, DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE
Clint joins us from Merrimack College where he worked in alumni relations since 2016. He brings significant experience with alumni programming, event planning, and volunteer management.