Friends School of Portland
Annual Report for Giving 2025-2026
A Gratitude Report
Dear Friends,
In June, we kicked off celebrating twenty years of Friends School of Portland. I was so excited to catch up at that event with friends I’ve known and new Friends School families alike. This year, I look forward to continuing to celebrate this two-decade journey. I remember the earliest years of this dream of starting a Friends School in Maine.
In Friends School of Portland’s first year, I would come at the end of the school day each week to pick up my friend’s son, Doug Wagner, from kindergarten in the afternoon. We would talk about new ideas he had, new games he wanted to practice with me, and enjoy nature, as every FSP student learns to do. The time spent with Doug was my introduction to what a Friends School education can mean. I am in awe to know this young boy still. He is now an engineer, living out his Quaker values, and giving back to FSP as an alum. Dreams can and do lead to wonderful things when we are persistent and believe deeply in the good that can come.
As I watch my two grandnieces make their way through their FSP education, I marvel at all they have learned in these tender years. And I marvel at all that I have learned from so many over these past 20-plus years of knowing FSP. There is a richness in knowing almost a generation of history that is very much alive as we celebrate this year. As we plan for our next 20 years, as a school, let’s keep in mind how best to sustain what we have created and build upon it.
Together, let’s celebrate our teachers and the people who continue to create this school community. It’s important to contribute, both financially and with our time, to strengthen Friends School of Portland for our future students.
With gratitude,
Board Members
School Year 2025-2026
Kathy Beach, clerk
Andy Dixon
Margaret Evans
James Grumbach
Janet Lohmann
Doug McCown
Galen McNemar Hamann
Heather Merriman
William Bickley
Christopher Branson
Stephen Gefvert
Robert Knight
Mary Roy
Luc Nya
Patrick O’Connor
Sara Primo, Head of School
Kirk Read
Emily Rossiter
Ali Smith
Fritz Weiss
Advisory Committee Members
Sam Solish
Adelaide Solomon-Jordan
Sarah Standiford
Thomas Welch
Our Mission
Friends School of Portland challenges and empowers students to develop their intellectual, physical, emotional, creative, and spiritual potential. We honor our students' natural gifts as they learn to enter the world with confidence, competence, joy, and a sense of purpose.
We are guided by the Quaker values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship, and truth.
School Finances: Intentional Planning to Steward Our Resources
As a young school, we rely on tuition, which accounts for 74% of our overall revenue. With 140 students in the 2025-2026 school year, we awarded financial aid to more than one-third of our student body. Financial aid was increased by 5.2% to allow for $542,981 in assistance to families demonstrating need. Last school year, the board approved a 4% increase in tuition for Grades 1-8. The pressures on expenses have continued to grow, as we have seen building insurance and liability insurance increases. We have also seen health insurance increases, which all employees working 30 hours or more are eligible to receive. Investing in excellent teachers, who shape the student experience, remains a consistent and critical priority. Last school year, we were able to increase our overall salaries and compensation by 7.4%. This allowed us to account for a rise in health insurance costs and for both our step scale increase and a 3.5% cost of living increase – thereby a 5.4% increase felt by faculty.
Over the course of the school year, we invested in both new construction and needed maintenance of facilities and grounds. We are thrilled to have completed our new outdoor classroom pavilion with the help of generous donations. Fundraising made up 11% of the total revenue this year. This includes the increase in our endowment of 57%. Our endowment, invested with Friends Fiduciary, now totals $366,775.
Friends School of Portland is funded not by tuition alone, but by the tax-deductible contributions of families and friends who invest in our mission. We are deeply grateful. Generosity is not supplemental; it is foundational.
Revenues & Expenditures
A Community Rooted in Giving
At Friends School of Portland, we are grounded by a sense of responsibility to the world, our community, and one another. Each year, board members, faculty, staff, families, grandparents, and friends pitch in to support what tuition alone does not cover.
Simple Gifts, Shared Purpose
Annual Giving to the Friends Fund
271 Gifts Contributed at Every Level
We invest in and build our learning community together.
With the support of 256 donors making a total of 271 gifts, we raised $171,384 for the Friends Fund. Each year, we raise funds to support what tuition alone cannot cover. Contributions to the Friends Fund range from $1.97 to $20,000 and directly support our annual operating budget: faculty compensation and professional development, tuition assistance, field trips, and overnight experiences.
Every gift helps make a powerful and important impact on our annual budget. Friends like you have helped make this possible.
“Our family has had the opportunity to experience multiple generations of students who have found a sense of community at Friends School of Portland. From Mackworth to Cumberland, we have been welcomed, appreciated, and loved. Students here are not bound by the walls of the classrooms. They learn outside; they play outside. Eventually, they know how to center themselves.
If I could, I would send every child here. We are proud that our contributions ensure FSP can continue to uphold its commitment to student exploration and community spirit.”
Leah Berry-Sandelin P’34 and Susan Berry-Sandelin P’16 GP'34