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LETTER FROM BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIRMAN

Dear Ransom Everglades Community,

I’ve been honored to work with a visionary team of leaders on the Ransom Everglades

Board of Trustees, and I count myself lucky to have concluded my tenure as board

chair during a transformative and exciting 12 months. I can’t thank my colleagues

enough for their dedication and progressive thinking over the last two years, and

I remain grateful to Head of School Penny Townsend for her spirit, support and

strong leadership.

As I reflect on what we’ve accomplished together, I recognize that our most promising

initiatives and programs have their root in the generosity and patronage of our alumni, parents, grandparents and friends

of Ransom Everglades. Your passion for educating the next generation of leaders led you to entrust us with more than $12

million in total cash, pledges and gifts in kind in 2015-16. Your beneficence pushed us, again, to a record-breaking year for

the school’s Annual Giving program, which drew more than $2.6 million.

We are grateful to our current parents, 86 percent of whom made donations totaling more than $1.6 million. Gifts from

alumni have nearly doubled over the last five years – for that we are thankful and thrilled. Some 93 percent of teachers and

staff at Ransom Everglades donated in 2015-16, testifying to their devotion to the young people they lead.

Your gifts provide our students with the means to reach their full potential in our classrooms and, eventually, as citizens

of the world. You offer them with every opportunity to grow and thrive. And you allow us to continue to boost financial aid

to guarantee that all qualified students, regardless of their financial background, may benefit from an RE education. Last

year, Ransom Everglades awarded more than $5 million in financial aid and tuition remission, supporting students with an

average grant of $27,692.

Your devotion to this school also provides a strong foundation for new dreams and dramatic upgrades. Last June, the school

acquired the La Brisa property just north of the Ransom Campus. La Brisa’s dazzling 6.9 acres, shaded by leafy canopies,

fringed by mangroves and bordering the bayfront, will provide our students with new space to study, learn and explore, while

also giving us the breathing room to tackle a long-awaited Multidisciplinary Center + STEM Institute and other academic

spaces on our current Upper School campus.

Thanks to your generosity, the vision of RE’s leadership and the unyielding promise of our students and faculty, RE can look

forward to another magnificent century.

Eric A. Mendelson

Chairman, 2015-16 Board of Trustees

Ransom Everglades School

Report of Giving 2015-16

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