A healthy endowment or foundation enables a school to be less reliant on enrollment and tuition and better able to withstand economic changes. To help secure our financial future, we need to increase funding in the Routt High School Education Foundation. The Education Foundation was formed in 1990 through the leadership of Sr. Philip Neri Crawford and the members of the
Routt High School Alumni Association. They felt it important to create a legal entity controlled locally with the purpose of receiving contributions for the benefit of Routt. The original funding of the Foundation came from Sr. Philip Neri’s first appeal letter sent in 1990. Since its inception, the Foundation has received numerous gifts for the support of Routt and over twenty individual and
family funds have been established. The Foundation is managed by a Board of Directors, and they invest the contributions to provide an additional stream of income to Routt.

The Foundation currently holds just over $1,000,000 in investments, the proceeds of which are annually distributed to Routt Catholic High School. These funds provide essential support for Routt to provide tuition assistance and to support funding for our academic programs and for faculty salaries. As determined in the feasibility study conducted in the spring of 2008, we need to increase the funding in the Routt High School Education Foundation to $2,500,000 to strengthen Routt’s financial future and to help stabilize tuition costs. However, that is more than we feel we can request at this particular time.

Therefore, our current goal for the Foundation is $400,000.

In addition, in a recent review of the Routt Catholic High School facilities, originally constructed in 1966, a number of critical repair and maintenance issues emerged. Our research strongly suggests that we further pursue a program that addresses the repair and major maintenance needs of our building. As a result of the 2008 feasibility study, we would like to address the following repairs:

• Replace the school’s lower roof and associated drainage collection system, which requires ongoing maintenance and repair. The results of water damage are visible in the school’s lobby. Estimated cost: $100,000.
• With careful management, our present income coupled with our fund-raising activities allows us to meet our annual budget. However, when a major structural item fails, we have no way to immediately meet that need. Also, as our infrastructure continues to age, ongoing maintenance is needed. A maintenance fund to be used solely for identified repairs would help alleviate the problem. We have identified several areas that will likely need attention in coming years. Items identified for imminent repair include dome and upper school roof repairs, problems with the sanitary sewer in the kitchen, and foundation leaks in the Martha Routt Room. Estimated cost: $150,000.

If we could address the immediate and imminent repair needs, the total estimated cost would be $250,000.