At its core, Wellington is an engaged group of students, educators, parents, and alumni who love learning and who build lasting community with each other. When people first experience the Wellington community, they immediately sense the joy, belonging, and spirit of ambition that, while hard to describe, is impossible to miss. 

Wellington’s strength is its diverse community of people united by their commitments to educational excellence and shared values. At Wellington, our differences do not divide us – rather, they make us stronger. I have heard from you, over and over again, that we do not want our sense of community or our commitment to educational excellence to change. They are so inherent to who we are that we would rather cease to exist as Wellington than sacrifice them.

Educational excellence at Wellington means helping students build a strong academic foundation of core skills such as reading comprehension, mathematical fluency, and clear and persuasive writing. These skills open doors throughout life and prepare students for future intellectual and personal success. And, we believe education must go far beyond these fundamentals. It must empower students through engaging learning opportunities to think critically and creatively, to communicate effectively, and to love learning.  

While we are a college preparatory school, our work with students extends beyond preparing them for success in college. We prepare them to become thriving, contributing adults in ways as unique and valuable as they are.  

As our students prepare to graduate into a landscape in which many of their future careers have yet to be imagined, we recognize the need to prepare them for unpredictability and to equip them to adapt, to find satisfaction in effort and contribution, and to lead lives of success and significance.  

Finally, and perhaps ironically, one of the most often cited things that should never change about Wellington is our ability to change. We are committed to always evolving. We are committed to learning and growing as individuals. We are committed to giving teachers the autonomy to be creative and try something new in a classroom or program. And we are willing as a school to be creative and imagine a future for our school that looks different from where we are today. We know that as our young people face immense opportunities and unprecedented complexity, Wellington must evolve too. We are eager and ready to envision and author our next chapter. 

Head of Early Childhood Shelley Brown will add assistant head of school for academics to her title next year, with Nicole Franks joining us from Laurel School in Cleveland to support her as assistant head of lower school. We have elevated Erica Clark’s role to director of student success for lower school and middle school. The strong team of learning specialists will be bolstered by additional student-facing support around reading, math, and executive function.

Additional full-time teaching staff are being added in areas where we need more support, more levels, or smaller class sizes – namely math in middle and upper School – and we have appointed curricular leads, or department chairs, in the core academic disciplines to be teacher leaders and add greater coordination and collaboration within their departments and across divisions.

Engagement is at the heart of educational excellence at Wellington. We do not want rote memorization or passive consumers of knowledge – we want students to be actively involved, curious, and passionate about their learning. Launched six years ago by then Head of School Rob Brisk with support from Ted Manley and the trustees, The Wellington Initiative is a social enterprise that helps schools measure student engagement. The software platform collects and analyzes self-reported student data on how much they are loving each of their classes and how challenged they are in each of their classes. This is based on Wellington’s definition of student engagement: when a student is both challenged by and loving their classes, they are engaged. 

Students at Wellington – and now at 200 schools, both public and private throughout the country – report six times a year via The Wellington Initiative their engagement levels in each of their classes. Teachers and administrators then analyze that data to identify opportunities and inform improvements. Each red dot on the graph below represents one class in Wellington’s middle and upper school.

You can see the vast majority of our sections are in the upper right quadrant which reflects that students report they are challenged in the course and they love it. That is where we want them. 

At The Wellington Initiative, we have hired a new director of business development, and my hope is that in the coming years we can continue to spread Wellington’s commitment to student engagement to schools and students all across America while also providing a significant alternative revenue source to the School.

We conducted the Authentic Connections survey earlier this year – a student well-being, belonging, and culture survey. We just received the full results and will set up a parent coffee to share those findings. One encouraging early finding: Authentic Connections provides schools with a well-being index based on their students’ responses to questions, and they characterize any score above 80% on this index as an indication of strong well-being within the student population. Wellington’s middle and upper school combined score was 91%, 11 points above the healthy line. While we always have more work to do, this is an affirming data point. 

Head of Upper School Rishi Raghunathan and Academic Dean Dr. Brandon Sullivan put countless hours of research and effort into building a brand new upper school schedule for next school year and articulating the opportunities for challenge in the curriculum. There are 140 exciting courses available next year, including courses that prepare students to take AP Exams so that they can enter college with credits where applicable. Read more about the upper school schedule and check out the 92-page course guide.  

Wellington is tuition-driven, with 89% of its revenue deriving from tuition. The Board of Trustees is committed to supporting socio-economic diversity in our student body. The tuition assistance program supports 39% of the student body, 12% of whom are children of faculty and staff who have access to the School’s 50% tuition remission program. The state fund revenue comes from Ohio to cover the costs of some imposed requirements, and auxiliary and other income refers to revenue from summer camps, rentals, programs such as Wellington Youth Basketball, etc.

The finance committee makes sure the budget is balanced prior to annual giving – meaning that our essential expenses are covered without relying on philanthropy – but knowing the community’s generosity allows us to make additional investments in people, projects, and tuition assistance. 

Wellington, like any other educational institution, is labor-intensive and spends the majority of its budget on salaries and benefits. Administrative expenses include things such as professional development and technology, instruction expenses are resources related to curriculum, books, learning supplies, travel expenses, etc., and operations expenses are mostly campus and facility maintenance.  

The budget-setting process begins in the fall of the year prior as the leadership team and trustees project enrollment and discuss tuition and salary increases. These are approved in the December trustee meeting and refined throughout the winter and spring.

This year, we saw the largest enrollment in the School’s history at 718 students, including 142 new students. The School continues to prioritize a diverse student body, with 40% students of color. We are slightly boy-heavy with 53% boys and 47% girls. We saw 9% attrition last year, with the largest portion of families leaving after prekindergarten or kindergarten for public school. Wellington’s attrition is two points lower than the ISACS average of 11% which means we’re in a good place though, of course, we always want attrition to be as low as possible..

Last year, we had 727 inquiries into the admissions office, 253 of which resulted in completed applications to the School. Of the 253, 173 were accepted (a 68% acceptance rate). Of those who were accepted, 142 enrolled (an 82% yield). Compared with our ISACS benchmark, we’re a few points below the average acceptance rate of 70% and a few points above the average yield rate 77%, meaning we are slightly better than the average in both areas.  

As we look to next year and beyond, the Board of Trustees has established a goal for strategic growth in enrollment leading up to the School’s 50th anniversary in 2032, when we hope to reach a student body of 800. We will maintain our commitment to small class sizes while growing.

We anticipate modest growth from this year toward our eventual goal of 800 – perhaps by 10-20 students from this year’s 718 total. As of now, we have 95% of re-enrollment contracts in for this year and we are trending ahead on applications compared to this time last year. We’re seeing high demand particularly in the kindergarten, grade 6, and grade 9 entry points. We will continue to be selective in acceptance against a set of criteria including academic readiness, family alignment with school mission and values, and the student’s likelihood to both succeed and make an impact at Wellington.

We are committed to adding staffing where necessary and considering classroom space constraints in the middle and upper schools – a critical issue we know we must address as we look ahead with strategic planning and campus planning.  

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More than anything, Wellington recognizes that a school’s success depends on its faculty. Wellington commits to being the employer of choice in Columbus for passionate, talented educators who love their work. We strive to attract, develop, and retain the best teachers by offering competitive, family-sustaining salaries and benefits while fostering a culture that ensures ample resources, time, professional development, mentorship, and autonomy.  

We will ensure the integrity and consistency of our foundational academic curriculum while expanding opportunities for engaging learning, including project-based, discussion-based, and place-based learning, entrepreneurial programs, and service learning. The driving goal is to graduate students with strong academic skills who possess the adaptability, high standards, and confidence to achieve and contribute in a rapidly changing landscape. We commit also to supporting access to the Wellington program for students and families and upholding our strong values in a welcoming and inclusive environment. This means increasing access to and the affordability of a Wellington education. 

As we grow enrollment, we will make sure our facilities and resources meet the needs of our program while maintaining the connected community that defines Wellington. We will upgrade, and in some cases overhaul, dated facilities and activate a new entrance into a modernized building on Fishinger Road and, in doing so, finish the campus vision and build out. We will also take greater advantage of learning opportunities throughout Columbus while considering our place within the city and our capacity to extend Wellington’s impact more broadly.  

We will ensure Wellington’s long-term sustainability through financial security and growth, expanding both tuition revenue and non-tuition revenue while building endowment support for our mission, teachers, and students for generations to come. We will make sure Wellington’s emphasis on student engagement is lasting and that Wellington is recognized for its leadership in measuring and optimizing engagement for students all over the country. Our alumni network will play a critical role in creating opportunities for one another, for current students, and for future generations of Wellington students.  

Wellington seeks to secure additional funding through The Wellington Initiative and a variety of fundraising efforts, notably including a capital campaign to support facilities and endowment. Our charge is to ensure Wellington remains financially sustainable with adequate resources to support an outstanding faculty, program, and physical plant.