Donna

Mr. David Grooms Assistant Headmaster Brookwood School 301 Cardinal Ridge Road Thomasville, GA 31792 Voice: (229) 226-8070 FAX: (229) 226-8095 Obviously, there is not one reason why a school is successful or unsuccessful. However, I believe that the single most important factor in success at Brookwood has been our Endowment. The Endowment allows us to pay our faculty at competitive rate in comparison to other independent schools in our region, while charging a relatively low tuition compared to the same schools. It has allowed us to maintain a strong faculty and make personnel decisions on what is best for the school and not what we can afford. We have no debt and our Endowment pumps money into our budget to in effect allow us to live beyond our means in terms of tuition. By the same token our relatively lower tuition has helped us to maintain a fairly strong enrollment. We have the largest enrollment in our history this year.

I think that academics are a key factor in our success. We have placed strong emphasis on our Advanced Placement Program. We emphasize quality over quantity in this program and have used vertical teaming aspects to develop skills in students prior to enrollment in the AP courses. I have seen a strong trickle-down impact from the vertical teaming approach over the past fifteen years in our Middle School in particular. A third factor that I would cite is the quality of writing in our students. Our students consistently score higher in writing than other academic measures. This is shown in our PSAT, SAT, and AP sub scores. We place great emphasis on grammar and writing. This is accomplished in many ways and on many levels.

Michael Gannon Head of Upper School Pace Academy 404-240=9104 mgannon@paceacademy.org

I've been at Pace for 16 years, and I think a couple of things that define our community allow the school to be "successful," depending on one's definition of success. Like most independent schools, we are a fantastic place for a certain type of student, and probably not the right fit for others. Pace has a really good sense of itself and we don't attempt to be all things to all people. We try to emphasize the things that define us as we communicate to the public so that students who are good fits here matriculate. Mostly we get it right which is why we are successful. That starts and finishes with having great students. We define ourselves by our academics first and foremost. We have other programs that are strong, but we are a school first. When we meet with our new families during their first semester on our campus we ask them why they chose Pace. Without fail, they talk about teaching and learning. We have data in terms of SAT averages, AP scores and college admissions that support that message and it resonates with our constituents. Our faculty is a veteran group because we have such good students. Turnover is low. These variables are circular. Great students want to work with great faculty. Great faculty want to work with great students. We want to keep both groups on our campus.

We also a relatively small school compared to our independent school peers in the neighborhood. We sell that strength relentlessly-your child will have opportunities to participate that they would not otherwise have at larger institutions-your child will be known as an individual, your family will have access to administrators to collaborate, classes are small, etc. Pace is also a school that is known in our community for outstanding performing and visual arts programs. Institutionally these programs are very important and we market them as such. Finally, we have a tremendously supportive parent community, in terms of money and time. They volunteer countless hours on our campus, and we welcome them because, frankly, we couldn't run the place without their support. I hope this feedback helps. Best, Mike