St. Thomas Academy Kicks Off Public Phase of Capital Campaign

St. Thomas Academy is scheduled to begin the public phase of its long-term Defining Moment Capital Campaign Tuesday night at the school’s annual Opus Sancti Thomae dinner.

The event will be held for approximately 250 attendees who donated a minimum of $1,000 to St. Thomas Academy in the last fiscal year and is part of the school’s homecoming week celebrations.

Following Tuesday’s dinner the school will ratchet up its public fundraising efforts, mailing out approximately 8,000 pledge drive notices to potential donors. Fundraising efforts will focus on current and former parents along with alumni.

STA administrators reported that the capital campaign has been in its “quiet phase” for several years and has earned approximately $11.25 million of the campaign’s ultimate $18 million goal.

The school originally aimed to raise $10 million to meet an endowment need and an additional $30 million that would go to facilities improvements as part of a $40 million overall fundraising drive.

“The public phase hasn’t happened as quickly as we wanted it to,” said Mary Culberston, director of communications for St. Thomas Academy. “It was just bad timing with the economy.”

The original fundraising target of $30 million for facility improvement funds was intended to address four needs at St. Thomas Academy, including:

• Building a student activity center

• Constructing dedicated 21st-century classroom facilities for math and science

• Building a new pool and diving facility

• Building an expanded court area on the STA campus and improving disability access at the school  

But following the 2008 downturn in the economy St. Thomas Academy reevaluated the capital campaign’s goals. The school's board of trustees ultimately decided to end the endowment phase after successfully raising $10 million, money which goes to staff and faculty development.

STA is now focused on raising what administrators and board members felt was a more realistic $18 million, money which will be dedicated to capital improvements.

“When I came on board and figured out where we were from a dollars-and-cents perspective, I  encouraged the board (of trustees) to think about what the highest priority of the campaign should be from a facilities side,” said Director of Institutional Advancement Chris Ritten, a 1980 graduate of St. Thomas Academy who was hired in 2009.

The Saint Thomas Academy Board of Trustees ultimately decided that the student activity center should be the ongoing capital campaign’s most immediate goal.

“We’re not forgetting those other priorities, but for two years the primary effort of fundraising has been the student activity center,” Regis said.

If the capital campaign meets the full $18 million of its funding goal for the student activity center, the building will include four courts with an atrium and concession stand; new math and science labs; a fine arts suite featuring band and choir rooms, practice spaces and art studios; a main level with a bookstore, offices and classrooms, along with new locker, weight, wrestling and meeting rooms.

The school had originally planned to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the student activity center on Sept. 30 as part of its homecoming activities, but because of recent problems with its pool facilities, that groundbreaking has been postponed.

The pool building was closed over the summer for scheduled renovation and maintenance work; as a result of that work severe deficiencies in three walls of the building’s structural steel support were discovered. As a safety precaution the school closed the building and is currently trying to decide how best to proceed.

While a new pool and diving facility remains part of the school’s long-term goals, Ritten reported that the board of trustees is aware of the potential impact the absence of a home pool would have on the strength and stability of the swim program. As a result nothing has yet been ruled out, including repairing the current pool facilities.

“Our preference would obviously be for someone to write us a $6 million check tomorrow and we can build a new pool,” Ritten said. “However...(the board) is keeping repair options open.”

St. Thomas Academy reported on its website that the school will be working with an advisory board of VISTA swim community members in the coming weeks to specifically target fundraising efforts for the pool. Of the approximately $11.25 million already raised by the Defining Moment campaign, less than $200,000 has been restricted to building a new pool.

A FAQ page is available on the school's website for more information about the St. Thomas Academy pool.