‘The Same Mission Between a New Set of Bricks’

Through the course of its 120-year history, leaders of the MacDuffie School have found ways to survive challenges and carry out its mission. The recent decision to sell the school and move it to the former former St. Hyacinth Seminary in Granby is merely a continuation of that tradition, said its current director. The MacDuffie name will live on, he insisted, and while the mailing address will change, the mission won’t.

Thomas Addicks says MacDuffie is what he calls a “self-help school.” Not only do its students receive a quality academic education, they also learn life skills, which allow them to adapt to changing circumstances.
In that same vein, throughout the course of the school’s 120-year history, the board of directors has made significant changes to keep MacDuffie operational, he continued.
“Our mission has always remained unchanged, but the way we carry it out has changed based on the best interests of the school,” said Addicks, who is the interim director of MacDuffie. He explained that, unlike many coeducational independent schools in Western Mass. that have merged or folded, MacDuffie has found ways to continuously meet challenges and move forward.
“We are like the little engine that could — it’s how we operate,” Addicks said.
Right now, the school is on a new track, which will take it into uncharted territory. Several weeks ago, officials announced that, in the fall of 2011, MacDuffie will move from its Springfield location to a 26-acre campus in Granby.
International EC LLC of Babylon, N.Y., which acquired the Granby property in June, is poised to take over all of MacDuffie’s operations on a site that was home to the former St. Hyacinth Seminary and then to Holyoke Catholic High School for a short period of time.
However, the move cannot proceed until final approval is obtained from the Attorney General’s office, which is required because it involves the sale of a nonprofit entity to a private, for-profit company.
But MacDuffie officials hope all will go smoothly and say they are excited about the potential for growth the new campus will offer. They view this as yet another chapter in the school’s storied history, which has included several moves, a redefined mission, and a switch from an all-girls school to a coed facility.

“There have been a lot of changes at MacDuffie over the years,” said Michael Serafino, chairman of the board of trustees and father to three MacDuffie graduates. He added that few people know that, when MacDuffie was founded in 1890 as a college-preparatory school for young women, it was a for-profit venture. The school didn’t change to a non-profit until the 1930s, which was done to take advantage of tax laws and to allow officials to reach out to alumni as a means of generating revenue.

Changing Times
In its heyday, MacDuffie had more than 300 students. But in recent times, the school has faced significant challenges caused by declining enrollment and heightened competition in the private-school market.
About six or seven years ago MacDuffie received a boost from the MassMutual Privatized High School Scholarship Program, which provided almost $1 million in full-tuition scholarships to students at MacDuffie, Cathedral High, and Pioneer Valley Christian School in Springfield.
The program paid 100% of the tuition cost for 10 MacDuffie students each year for four consecutive years after they were accepted into the program upon graduation from eighth grade. “It was very effective in retaining enrollment,” said Serafino. “At its peak, we had 40 MassMutual scholars. But the program ends this year, and the class of 2012 will be the last to graduate from this program.”
Today, the school has 173 students, including 20 MassMutual Scholars and 57 international students. “The economy hasn’t helped, as people are looking to spend their money in different ways,” said Serafino, “but this is not just an issue at MacDuffie — all independent schools are facing enrollment challenges.”
Although officials agree there is still a demand for what the school offers, the local student population has greater financial needs than they did in the past.
Tuition, which is $24,500 for day students and $47,250 to $52,500 for boarding students, has not been a problem for foreign students, but MacDuffie has been unable to grow that population due to limited dormitory space. Addicks said that, at one point, the school looked into expanding its buildings, but found the measure was cost-prohibitive.
“As a result, we ran into the proverbial rock or hard spot,” he told BusinessWest. “There is a demand for the school, but it comes with students who have a significant need for financial aid, which has been an ongoing factor for at least 15 years. MacDuffie is not alone in this situation. But we have virtually no endowment to fall back on. So we found ourselves in a situation with no financial buffer because there was never enough money to put some aside for a rainy day.”
In the fiscal year that ended in June 2010, the school had to lay off 10 faculty and staff members. To make matters worse, MacDuffie encountered problems with fund-raising. “It’s a tough environment due to greater competition,” Serafino said. But both the board and staff members have continued to do their best with limited resources, hoping that things would turn around.

Unparalled Opportunity
Two years ago, one of MacDuffie’s trustees learned that the former St. Hyacinth’s Seminary in Granby was for sale. The site had enough land to allow MacDuffie to expand, and several board members toured the, property.
“But we didn’t have the funds to consider buying it,” said Serafino. “Plus, we wanted to stay in the Springfield area.”
However, in January 2010, board members learned that International EC was purchasing the property and planned to open a private school there with an emphasis on global education.
“We knew them and had done business with them,” Serafino said, explaining that the firm’s expertise has always been in recruiting international students. “We thought their concept was interesting, so we decided to talk to them to see if there was any way we could work together.”
It quickly became clear that a merger would be mutually beneficial. “They liked our history, our great curriculum, our excellent faculty, and our culture, and we liked their vision, ideas, and their property,” Serafino said.
MacDuffie officials agreed to have International EC purchase all of the school’s intangible or non-real-estate assets, while retaining the mission, staff, traditions, and curriculum that give the school its identity, along with its intellectual property, furnishings, computers, and business equipment.
“We are just picking up the school and the greater school community, which includes parents, teachers, and vendors, and putting it between a new set of bricks,” said Addicks.
Benefits will include enhanced classroom space, state-of-the-art technology capabilities, and spacious athletic fields.
In fact, Addicks believes the Granby property has unlimited potential. “It will be much easier to work out collaborations and use the facilities of the five colleges when we are in Granby,” he said, referring to Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire, and UMass Amherst. “The new location will allow us to expand our curriculum in ways we couldn’t do before.”
Addicks said the school also hopes to attract new students from the Northampton/Amherst/Hadley area. “We think there is a fairly large market there for our type of program,” he said.
However, the school plans to continue its informal partnerships in Springfield and will provide transportation from Springfield to Granby for its urban students.
Addicks is looking forward to the the move, and says his confidence in International EC continues to grow. In addition to agreeing to keep tuition the same for at least a year, the company is using local vendors to renovate the campus. “That is the MacDuffie way. We have always used local vendors, as we want to be part of the community in which we live,” he said. “They have put $1 million into the campus, are still going, and plan to offer scholarships to Granby students.”

Mixed Feelings
Members of the board of directors are aware that many people hate to see the historic school leave Springfield. But the potential benefits from the move were, and are, too great to turn down.
“Our preference was always to stay in Springfield; we are an important part of the community, but we couldn’t ignore a very significant opportunity like this,” said Serafino. “The Granby site has a gorgeous campus, and there is room for expansion. It also has a lot of pieces we would have liked to have, but didn’t have the money or room for.
“This will still be the MacDuffie School, but it will just be in a different location. We expect there will be some changes over time, but our core values are expected to stay intact, as that is what International EC liked, and what attracted them to us.”
Serafino said MacDuffie submitted all of the required paperwork to the Attorney General’s office several weeks ago, and expects to have a decision in the first part of January. “We have done everything we needed to do, and we hope this will be approved.”
If all goes well, the final step will be to sell MacDuffie’s real estate. Serafino said the board has put together a work group that “will hit the ground running” to market the Maple High/Six Corners property when the time is right. They hope to find a buyer who will maintain the site’s character and make upgrades consistent with the historic neighborhood. Their belief that this will happen is one more example of the positive attitude which has allowed MacDuffie to withstand the challenges of time and educate generations of students.
“That’s been our story for 120 years,” Addicks said, “and we hope to continue it for another 120.”