Groton School 
The information on this page was last updated 8/1/2022. If you see errors or omissions, please email: [email protected]
Summary
SCHOLARSHIP: Small classes and brilliant teachers will nurture your intellect and spark your imagination.
LEADERSHIP: Every student learns to lead. Groton will sharpen your leadership skills and help you understand your leadership style.
FAMILY: Groton was built on the model of a family, and, like family, we take care of each other.
Contact information
Mailing address:
Groton School
282 Farmers Row
PO Box 991
Groton, MA 01450
Website: groton.org
Phone: 978-448-3363
Email: [email protected]
Organization details
EIN: 042104265
CEO/President: Temba Maqubela
Chairman: Benjamin Nicholl Pyne
Board size: 27
Founder: Endicott Peabody
Ruling year: 1934
Tax deductible: Yes
Fiscal year end: 06/30
Member of ECFA: No
Member of ECFA since:
Purpose
The school's motto, Cui Servire Est Regnare, derived from the Book of Common Prayer, originally referred to a person's service to God. The motto is now accepted more broadly to connote service to the community and the world, and it inspires many Grotonians to make community service part of their lives. Groton had two earlier mottos, before the turn of the twentieth century: Esse quam videri (To be rather than to seem) and the lesser-known Deo Magistro Semper Condiscipuli (Forever fellow-learners, God, our Master, blessing).
Mission statement
Groton School Mission: To inspire lives of character, scholarship, leadership, and service within a diverse, inclusive, and close-knit community.
Statement of faith
Donor confidence score
Transparency grade
D
To understand our transparency grade, click here.
Financial efficiency ratings
Sector: K-12 Schools/Academies
| Category | Rating | Overall rank | Sector rank |
| Overall efficiency rating | | 683 of 1024 | 36 of 40 |
| Fund acquisition rating | | 95 of 1027 | 12 of 40 |
| Resource allocation rating | | 929 of 1027 | 37 of 40 |
| Asset utilization rating | | 803 of 1024 | 38 of 40 |
Financial ratios
| Funding ratios | Sector median | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
Return on fundraising efforts Return on fundraising efforts = Fundraising expense / Total contributions | 13% | 13% | 13% | 12% | 16% | 20% |
Fundraising cost ratio Fundraising cost ratio = Fundraising expense / Total revenue | 3% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
Contributions reliance Contributions reliance = Total contributions / Total revenue | 13% | 34% | 31% | 35% | 27% | 19% |
Fundraising expense ratio Fundraising expense ratio = Fundraising expense / Total expenses | 3% | 4% | 5% | 5% | 5% | 5% |
Other revenue reliance Other revenue reliance = Total other revenue / Total revenue | 87% | 66% | 69% | 65% | 73% | 81% |
| Operating ratios | Sector median | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
Program expense ratio Program expense ratio = Program services / Total expenses | 82% | 68% | 69% | 68% | 68% | 69% |
Spending ratio Spending ratio = Total expenses / Total revenue | 96% | 101% | 88% | 80% | 86% | 73% |
Program output ratio Program output ratio = Program services / Total revenue | 75% | 69% | 61% | 54% | 59% | 51% |
Savings ratio Savings ratio = Surplus (deficit) / Total revenue | 4% | -1% | 12% | 20% | 14% | 27% |
Reserve accumulation rate Reserve accumulation rate = Surplus (deficit) / Net assets | 4% | 0% | 2% | 3% | 2% | 4% |
General and admin ratio General and admin ratio = Management and general expense / Total expenses | 15% | 28% | 26% | 27% | 27% | 26% |
| Investing ratios | Sector median | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
Total asset turnover Total asset turnover = Total expenses / Total assets | 0.42 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.09 | 0.09 | 0.09 |
Degree of long-term investment Degree of long-term investment = Total assets / Total current assets | 3.12 | 2.27 | 2.02 | 2.04 | 2.13 | 2.24 |
Current asset turnover Current asset turnover = Total expenses / Total current assets | 1.49 | 0.22 | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.21 |
| Liquidity ratios | Sector median | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
Current ratio Current ratio = Total current assets / Total current liabilities | 3.11 | 9.17 | 15.19 | 16.65 | 16.22 | 12.73 |
Current liabilities ratio Current liabilities ratio = Total current liabilities / Total current assets | 0.32 | 0.11 | 0.07 | 0.06 | 0.06 | 0.08 |
Liquid reserve level Liquid reserve level = (Total current assets - Total current liabilities) / (Total expenses / 12) | 4.41 | 47.72 | 60.06 | 60.23 | 58.05 | 52.53 |
| Solvency ratios | Sector median | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
Liabilities ratio Liabilities ratio = Total liabilities / Total assets | 40% | 20% | 18% | 18% | 18% | 21% |
Debt ratio Debt ratio = Debt / Total assets | 14% | 13% | 13% | 13% | 13% | 15% |
Reserve coverage ratio Reserve coverage ratio = Net assets / Total expenses | 160% | 811% | 892% | 901% | 896% | 840% |
Financials
| Balance sheet | |||||
| Assets | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Cash | $2,092,036 | $986,581 | $1,612,494 | $2,104,221 | $1,320,743 |
| Receivables, inventories, prepaids | $10,982,287 | $14,731,401 | $15,895,127 | $13,472,490 | $14,828,621 |
| Short-term investments | $215,301,804 | $253,578,431 | $248,677,459 | $228,767,975 | $198,661,855 |
| Other current assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total current assets | $228,376,127 | $269,296,413 | $266,185,080 | $244,344,686 | $214,811,219 |
| Long-term investments | $148,830,613 | $139,430,571 | $138,897,730 | $135,995,507 | $124,912,589 |
| Fixed assets | $134,727,183 | $128,821,028 | $131,981,465 | $132,670,604 | $134,919,361 |
| Other long-term assets | $7,218,851 | $7,219,395 | $7,220,686 | $7,226,500 | $7,239,017 |
| Total long-term assets | $290,776,647 | $275,470,994 | $278,099,881 | $275,892,611 | $267,070,967 |
| Total assets | $519,152,774 | $544,767,407 | $544,284,961 | $520,237,297 | $481,882,186 |
| Liabilities | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Payables and accrued expenses | $22,111,590 | $15,094,984 | $13,537,735 | $11,909,064 | $14,654,022 |
| Other current liabilities | $2,798,669 | $2,633,558 | $2,445,511 | $3,155,091 | $2,224,160 |
| Total current liabilities | $24,910,259 | $17,728,542 | $15,983,246 | $15,064,155 | $16,878,182 |
| Debt | $66,625,553 | $68,811,851 | $70,886,492 | $69,925,381 | $71,542,500 |
| Due to (from) affiliates | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Other long-term liabilities | $12,958,870 | $10,121,923 | $8,388,367 | $10,579,867 | $13,867,007 |
| Total long-term liabilities | $79,584,423 | $78,933,774 | $79,274,859 | $80,505,248 | $85,409,507 |
| Total liabilities | $104,494,682 | $96,662,316 | $95,258,105 | $95,569,403 | $102,287,689 |
| Net assets | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Without donor restrictions | $221,290,701 | $241,535,601 | $251,529,384 | $246,462,643 | $225,163,878 |
| With donor restrictions | $193,367,391 | $206,569,490 | $197,497,472 | $178,205,251 | $154,430,619 |
| Net assets | $414,658,092 | $448,105,091 | $449,026,856 | $424,667,894 | $379,594,497 |
| Revenues and expenses | |||||
| Revenue | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Total contributions | $17,078,009 | $17,798,145 | $21,871,686 | $14,959,754 | $11,573,674 |
| Program service revenue | $21,037,395 | $21,484,609 | $21,098,333 | $20,978,197 | $20,840,257 |
| Membership dues | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Investment income | $12,610,045 | $17,598,320 | $19,230,569 | $18,845,541 | $28,869,441 |
| Other revenue | ($15,137) | $122,915 | $339,376 | $402,626 | $367,731 |
| Total other revenue | $33,632,303 | $39,205,844 | $40,668,278 | $40,226,364 | $50,077,429 |
| Total revenue | $50,710,312 | $57,003,989 | $62,539,964 | $55,186,118 | $61,651,103 |
| Expenses | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Program services | $34,755,711 | $34,628,954 | $33,838,550 | $32,385,200 | $31,241,400 |
| Management and general | $14,137,999 | $13,258,718 | $13,487,740 | $12,682,259 | $11,622,245 |
| Fundraising | $2,266,097 | $2,375,265 | $2,526,880 | $2,330,189 | $2,351,199 |
| Total expenses | $51,159,807 | $50,262,937 | $49,853,170 | $47,397,648 | $45,214,844 |
| Change in net assets | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Surplus (deficit) | ($449,495) | $6,741,052 | $12,686,794 | $7,788,470 | $16,436,259 |
| Other changes in net assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total change in net assets | ($449,495) | $6,741,052 | $12,686,794 | $7,788,470 | $16,436,259 |
Compensation
| Name | Title | Compensation |
| Temba Maqubela | Headmaster | $752,402 |
| John MacEachern | Director of Development | $368,703 |
| Harold W Anderson III | Assistant Headmaster | $307,020 |
| Megan Harlan | Assistant Headmaster | $251,610 |
| Ian Gracey | Director of Admissions | $241,962 |
| Julie Dolan | Chief Financial Officer | $198,021 |
| Arthur Diaz | Chief Financial Officer - Retired as of 07/31/19 | $197,479 |
| Elizabeth Preston | Chief Technology Officer | $196,117 |
Compensation data as of: 6/30/2020
Response from ministry
No response has been provided by this ministry.
The information below was provided to MinistryWatch by the ministry itself. It was last updated 8/1/2022. To update the information below, please email: [email protected]
History
The vibrant and diverse Groton School of the twenty-first century took root in the inspired mind of the young Endicott Peabody.
Before founding Groton in 1884, at age twenty-seven, Mr. Peabody's life had taken many turns. Educated in England at Cheltenham and Cambridge, he pursued a banking career but abruptly turned away from finance and toward the Episcopal Church. Only months after the famed gunfight at the OK Corral, Mr. Peabody arrived in Tombstone, Arizona. In "the town too tough to die," the Anglophilic Yankee won over the miners, cowboys, and townspeople and built the first Episcopal church in the state.
But Mr. Peabody did not feel drawn to pastoral work and headed back East to complete his seminary studies. A brief stint as a schoolteacher provided his calling. He would start a school that explicitly sought to instill high-minded principles in the offspring of the most successful American entrepreneurs of the Gilded Age. The campus would sit on rich farmland along the Nashua River, with vistas of the distant mountains of Wachusett and Monadnock.
In the beginning, twenty-four students, the Reverend Peabody, and two colleagues, the Reverends Sherrard Billings and Amory Gardner, formed the school family. As Mr. Billings wrote years later, in 1930, the men shared "the conviction ... that there could be a school where boys and men could live together, work together, and play together in friendly fashion with friction rare."
As Groton has changed with the times, both its core and its outward appearance have remained constant. A deliberately small school, Groton today rests upon the foundation set forth long ago by the Reverend Endicott Peabody: the belief that a school embodying the best characteristics of a family will create the optimal environment in which students can learn and grow. Today's headmaster, Temba Maqubela, continues the ideals of Mr. Peabody-to lead a school that offers the highest quality academic education, instills strong character, builds leaders, and inspires lives.
1899 - Headmaster Peabody invited Booker T. Washington, a freed slave, to speak on campus. Mr. Washington spoke at Groton again in 1905.
1884 - Endicott Peabody founded Groton School.
1899-1903 - The school was a success and the campus we know today was already taking shape: the Schoolhouse, still the hub of Groton's Circle, was built in 1899. In 1900, the workers pictured completed St. John's Chapel. The gym (now the Dining Hall) opened in 1903.
1904 - President Theodore Roosevelt, a close friend and relative by marriage of Endicott Peabody's, spoke at Groton's commencement. His four sons went on to attend Groton.
1917 - Mr. Peabody shepherded the school through World War I: the Groton boys conducted military drills, and wheat was grown right on the Circle to help with the war effort. Many graduates went on to fight in WWI, and several gave their lives.
1920 - By 1920, Groton School had grown to about twenty-two faculty members and 180 students.
1929 - During the Depression, Groton School, thanks to a recent bequest, was able to offer aid to families who no longer could afford the tuition.
1931 - When Frankin Delano Roosevelt was governor of New York, he delivered Groton's Prize Day speech.
1933 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a graduate of Groton's Form of 1900, became president. Mr. Peabody, who had officiated at Franklin's wedding to Eleanor, was invited to all four of FDR's inaugurations and attended all but the last.
1940 - Endicott Peabody retired after leading Groton School for fifty-six years. The next headmaster, the Reverend John Crocker (Groton Form of 1918), remained at the helm for twenty-five years.
1941 - World War II led to austerity measures; with workers headed to war, the Groton boys picked up jobs around campus, such as cleaning, waiting tables, and shoveling coal.
1952 - Known for doing what simply was moral and right, Headmaster Crocker oversaw the admission of the first black student to Groton.
1963 - Mr. Crocker invited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak at Groton; the civil rights leader spent two days on campus.
1965 - Mr. Crocker took Groton boys to march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Boston. Graduates today recall a headmaster who instilled a deep understanding of civil rights and social justice through his sermons and his actions. That year also marked Mr. Crocker's retirement.
1965 - Reverend Bertrand N. Honea, Jr. led the school from 1965 to 1969.
1969 - Paul Wright became headmaster and served until 1974; he was the first headmaster who was not a clergyman.
1970 - The board designated a coeducation committee, and its proposal was approved by the trustees a year later. The decision was so controversial that the proposal was given a second review, but ultimately reaffirmed.
1974 - The Reverend Rowland Cox became headmaster as the school was about to become coeducational. He served until his death in 1977. From 1977-78, Peter Camp was acting headmaster.
1975 - The school welcomed the first female students to campus. Among the many changes accompanying coeducation was the hiring of full-time female faculty. Today, approximately half of the faculty are women and half of Groton students are girls.
1978 - William Polk '58 became headmaster and served until 2003.
2002 - The Dillon Art Center, designed by Perry Dean Rogers & Partners, opened.
2003 - Richard Commons became headmaster and served until 2013.
2005 - The Campbell Performing Arts Center, designed by architect Graham Gund, opened.
2008 - The school initiated a policy waiving tuition for families earning less than $75,000/year (now $80,000).
2013 - The current headmaster, Temba Maqubela, joined Groton. From day one, he has stressed the ideal, and reality, of inclusion.
2014 - The Board of Trustees embraced the GRoton Affordability and INclusion (GRAIN) initiative, naming it the school's number-one strategic priority. GRAIN ensured that the school would meet each applicant's full financial need and froze tuition for three years.
2015 - The newly renovated and expanded Schoolhouse opened. The project integrated the stately original structure-which was virtually unchanged-with a significant expansion that includes state-of-the-art science classrooms and laboratories, communal gathering places, a Fabrications Lab, and the the fifty-foot-high Sackett Forum, dedicated by former students to longtime Classics teacher Hugh Sackett. This was the sixth renovation to the 1899 Schoolhouse.
2017 - On Christmas Eve, GRoton Affordability and INclusion (GRAIN) hit its $50 million milestone. It went on to raise more than $54 million.
2018 - Architectural Digest named Groton School's Circle the most beautiful independent school campus in Massachusetts. Designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (Central Park, Boston Public Garden), the Circle today looks largely as it did more than one hundred years ago.