Perhaps you have noticed that we call our campaign, “WE WILL! Build in Faith.” That is the primary reason we are building now – not only because the physical need exists to repair, enhance and expand our campus, but also because we believe God is calling us into greater service in this community. In order to respond to those needs, we need the appropriate facilities.

Moreover, now is a great time to build. You may not know, but plans for this campaign have been ongoing for many years. When we first started, estimates were close to $20 million to improve our campus. The extended lull in the economy has presented an unprecedented opportunity. Building materials and contractor costs were at rock bottom, and we were able to receive financing for a portion of the project at a low interest rate. It just makes sense to take advantage of the market to do God’s work!

The order of the phasing has been determined for three primary reasons.

First, we had some of the money on hand for those improvements. Over the years, all monies (except 3% for endowment) raised through the School’s Annual Fund and Auction were set aside for future capital improvements. Additional financing was secured (at great rates) for the youth center and gym project, which is sustainable based on the school’s operating budget.

Second, during phase two of the construction, the youth center and gym served as temporary space to house most everything that was previously held in the parish hall. Without the youth center and gym, nearly all of our day-to-day activities, including church outreach programs and administrative functions would have to have been held off-site. We needed this building to accommodate space lost during construction of Phase II and now Phase III of the building project.

Lastly, the youth center and gym was a self-contained project.

The campaign fundraising goal is $10 million. It will cost about $16 million to build all phases of the project. Bank financing will cover the gap, at terms that are affordable within the church and school operating budgets.

Phase II included the church and school administration building and the Peace Chapel. It also included a covered walkway into St. Mark’s on the west side of campus – a boon to students, parents, and parishioners on rainy or hot days.

Staluppi Center, at 26,450-square-feet, the largest structure on the new St. Mark’s campus, will be the center of our daily church and school life.

During school hours, most of the building will be used as classrooms for art, band, chorus, and computers. The Great Hall can be divided into three large spaces for school lunches, church meetings, and other activities. When configured as an auditorium it will accommodate an audience of 450, perfect for school band and choral presentations, Christmas and Easter pageants, and other special programs.

In the evenings and on weekends, Staluppi Center will be used by church and school groups, as well as community-based organizations. Sunday morning breakfasts and after church socials will be served from a fully-equipped, professional kitchen.

New early learning classrooms
When the band, chorus, and art classes move to their new homes in the Staluppi Center, the first-floor of the 700 Building will be converted into six early learning classrooms.
Each classroom will include a bathroom (with smaller fixtures appropriate for 2 to 4 year-olds) and a classroom sink. For comfort and security, these will be the only classrooms on the floor.

Church improvements
Future plans call for improvements on the east side of the church, including a nursery; multi-purpose rooms for Christian education, Sunday school, extended care, and after-school; and modern restroom facilities.
The east side of Staluppi Center includes a circular, covered drop-off area that will provide sheltered access to all the main campus buildings.

Staluppi Center will be a multi-purpose building that will allow us to be able to gather for special presentations and receptions, and enjoy our band and chorus performances on stage. Several groups will be able to meet at the same time; band and chorus classrooms will be adjacent to the performance space. The well-designed, professional kitchen will provide food for the body while other programs hosted in the building will provide food for the soul.

Enhanced Opportunities for Learning and Ministry. A new kitchen and cafeteria, upgraded restrooms, state-of-the-art technology, upgrades to the performing arts facilities, and a new chapel and church renovations contribute to a more welcoming and functional St. Mark’s.

Flexibility. The demands for space at St. Mark’s far exceed availability. For example, the old parish hall could only accommodate one function at a time. The new hall and auditorium will allow us to host up to three simultaneous events, while the Youth Center and Gym at Robb Field offer the same kind of flexibility. Whether more room is needed for the after-school program, a scout meeting, a self-help group, or a prayer group, St. Mark’s will be prepared to accommodate these various needs.

Peace of Mind. Safety for our students, parishioners, staff, parents, and visitors is paramount at St. Mark’s. The creative design of the new buildings provides secure facilities for the many activities that go on here day and night.

The new facilities are not expected to increase parking demands; rather they offer the opportunity for enhanced service to our community throughout the week. We know that there are certain days throughout the year – Christmas, Easter, Back to School night, and a few others – when parking is a challenge. More than 100 spaces across the street at Robb Field are often left unused, and we encourage our young families and able-bodied parishioners to park there, leaving parking closer to the church and school for our family members with greater needs.

The church itself is in good condition, but the plans for St. Mark’s call for changes around the church building that will improve access and movement, restrooms, the sound system and overall worship experience. For example, there are no rooms appropriate for wedding parties to prepare. The priests want to enter at the altar, but they cannot due to the current layout. A new sacristy closer to the altar, a space where families with young children can participate in worship, and an enlarged narthex and additional entry ways into the church all provide a more welcoming atmosphere.

Church offices, Sunday school rooms, and meeting rooms suffer with leaking roofs, failing air conditioning systems and more. Further repairs would be extremely costly and would fall short of truly rectifying the situation. And the columbarium is full. We are simply out of space!

Moreover, the modifications and additions to the church facility are designed to meet a primary goal of the overall campaign: creating a more secure campus. At this time, to enter the church, parishioners and visitors enter into what should be a secure perimeter for our students. With the redesign, both the chapel and church will have entrances outside the safety perimeter, providing greater security for our staff and students. To create a greater opportunity for fellowship before and after services, we will have a larger narthex. More practical aspects of the redesign call for additional bathrooms and a kitchen to better serve our parishioners’ needs.

A new chapel will be located on the outside of the secured perimeter of the campus. Visitors will be able to pray in the chapel day or night. It also provides a second worship area that will be helpful for Sunday school curricula, school chapels, and visitors to the columbarium and memorial garden. The chapel will also have a walking labyrinth.

The columbarium and memorial garden will be enlarged and new plantings and pavers will be put in place. The existing chapel will become a baptistery and new niches for the columbarium will be added inside and out. Overflow seating for the church will continue to be offered in the baptistery.

Both the church and school have their own operating budgets, but because many facilities are shared on our campus, we have provided for expenses to be allocated to the separate budgets based on usage. On a whole, for shared spaces, the school covers 75% of expenses (utilities, maintenance and maintenance staffing, capital improvement, etc.) and the church covers the remaining 25%. For facilities used wholly by either the church or school, that entity covers those costs 100%.

Decisions about cost sharing are presented by the business manager and rector to both the vestry and school advisory board, which makes final decisions about allocations of funds. This same process will remain in place in the future as it relates to the new facilities. One important outcome of the capital campaign will be to help consolidate many services for St. Mark’s Church and School that are now done separately. This new business model will reduce overhead expenses for both the church and school.

The “WE WILL! Build in Faith” campaign will benefit both the church and school equally; therefore, all planning costs (including architect and engineering fees) have been shared equally.

We expect the church and school to share equally in the fundraising effort during the life of the “WE WILL! Build in Faith” campaign. We are one church, one school, and one community. It is our hope and vision that together we will provide the firm foundation so St. Mark’s can grow and thrive well into the future.

Yes. St. Mark’s has always been good a steward of our resources, understanding that we are entrusted with the responsibility not only to you, our parishioners and families, but also to God.

Finances of St. Mark’s are managed by the business manager who works closely with separate finance committees for the church and school. In addition, St. Mark’s Church and School conducts annual independent audits of all financial statements and reports.

Some facts that testify to St. Mark’s sound financial practices:

• Prior to the new construction, the church had no debt.
• The church’s annual budget is balanced annually and factors in expected cost increases and anticipated growth.
• The school’s leadership has consistently funded the operating budget through student tuition. This is an extraordinary practice because many private school operating budgets require fundraising projects to fund budget shortfalls.
• To keep up with salaries, benefits, and other increasing operating expenses, the school has historically raised tuition annually from three to five percent.

St. Mark’s Church and School have demonstrated the ability to adhere to a sustainable budgeting strategy that ensures long-term financial success through these steps and others.

Thank you for your past support of St. Mark’s! You are part of the reason we are in strong financial shape.

“WE WILL! Build in Faith” capital campaign gives a unique opportunity for you to invest in St. Mark’s future. By supporting the campaign with your financial gift, you are demonstrating your commitment to St. Mark’s vision – to grow in service to God, our church and school family and our community. You are also showing your faith that these facilities will help us achieve our goal.

Because we rely on your ongoing and annual support for our most practical needs, we ask that your capital gift not replace or diminish your regular annual support to St. Mark’s Church and School. Ideally, your capital gift should be sacrificial in nature and may be pledged over a period of time (up to five years).

Funds generated from the auction have been designated by school board action, to be used for the purchase of furniture, fixtures and equipment for Phase III construction. As you know, Phase III includes Staluppi Center which houses the dining hall, kitchen, fine arts classrooms, and performing arts center to showcase the talents of our children in the church and school.

Matching gifts are a great way to maximize the impact of your own gift! The best place to start is with your company's human resources representative. They can provide you with the paperwork you will need to get started. You or your company will then need to get in touch with the business office at St. Mark's so we can complete our portion of the paperwork to facilitate the match.

Please note, St. Mark's Church and School is a subordinate congregation of the Diocese of Southeast Florida that operates exclusively for religious purposes. Therefore, St. Mark's qualifies for group exemption under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Should you have any questions or need further information, please call the business office at 561-626-1504 x. 289.

Currently, enrollment for the 2012-2013 school year is 472 students in PK2 through 8th grade.

About 1,400 individuals from more than 500 households call St. Mark’s their church home. St. Mark’s is among the largest two-percent of all Episcopal churches in the U.S. and among the top five in the Diocese of Southeast Florida.

Enrollment is capped by the City of Palm Beach Gardens at 560 students. That maximum enrollment number will not change as a result of this campaign; however, we do expect as a result of improved facilities to attract more families to St. Mark’s and consequently enrollment will be more likely to approach the maximum allowable. Additional tuition-paying students will certainly help the school’s bottom line.

To be perfectly honest, it depends on the success of the capital campaign. As most families at St. Mark’s already know, it is the school’s policy to increase tuition by a small percentage each year to cover expense increases. The goal of our “WE WILL! Build in Faith” campaign is to raise at least two-thirds of the cost to construct the new facilities. The gap will be covered by bank loans which are currently available at very favorable rates and terms. The finance committee has determined that the debt service can be accommodated within the usual operating budgets of the church and school. Remember – donations to the capital campaign are tax deductible; tuition is not.

Yes. Approximately 1-to-3 percent of our student body receives aid based on financial need. Currently, this aid is a part of the school’s operating budget. It is our hope and goal to build an endowment in order to provide a greater amount of financial aid to more students in the future.

The Gardner Merit Scholarship was established in 2011, through the generosity of a grandparent as a legacy for his three grandchildren who attended St. Mark's Episcopal School from 1998 to 2011. St. Mark's Episcopal School will award two Gardner Merit Scholarships annually to rising sixth grade students (one existing St. Mark's student and one student wishing to attend St. Mark's School) who demonstrate academic achievement, as well as personal attributes that align with the School's core values.

The school’s endowment was recently started and stands now at approximately $120,000. The endowment fund grows each year with 3% of all proceeds received from the school’s annual fund and auction designated and transferred to the endowment fund each fiscal year. No funds will be distributed from the endowment fund until the corpus reaches $250,000. At that time, the school advisory board and finance committee will allocate the funds, with the primary use going toward student financial aid.

The church’s endowment was recently started also and stands at approximately $30,000. Similar to the school’s endowment, no funds will be distributed from the endowment fund until the corpus reaches $250,000. At that time, the endowment committee will make a recommendation to the vestry regarding the fund available.

St. Mark’s Episcopal School lives up to its name by modeling, practicing and teaching the Christian faith and its values embraced by the Episcopalian faith community. Students and families at St. Mark’s must ascribe to the school’s covenant, which begins:

I am a Child of God.

All people are Children of God,

therefore I will treat them in the way I wish to be treated.

In addition to embracing this covenant, students participate in weekly chapel services and the Eucharist. The school also has on staff a chaplain to provide prayer, counseling and spiritual support to students and families as well as teaching a religious education curriculum.