Annual Report: 2021 Fiscal Year Financial Update by Jason Mallon Chief Financial Officer
I was interacting with one of Eton’s community members recently, and they nonchalantly mentioned that our society has been dealing with COVID-19 now for about two years. That casual comment hit me like a ton of bricks and really made me reflect. Our society, to put it mildly, is living in “interesting” times, probably one of the most polarizing in the last forty years. I am thankful that my oldest child has had Eton to help shield him from that uncertainty while at the same time building the foundation to help prepare him to deal with this complex and nuanced world. I will be forever grateful for the decisions made by Eton’s Management and the Board. With any organization, a significant component of strategy involves finances, including financial success and sustainability. 14 | Eton School
The strategic financial decisions made previously has had a direct impact on Eton during the COVID-19 hurricane. These decisions and the school’s ability to pivot have put the school in the best position financially since I have been at the school. In last year’s annual report, I mentioned how the school put preventive measures in place to ensure our financial sustainability (operating reserve and line of credit). The school did not tap into either to help sustain operations during the 2020–21 school year and will not need to for the 2021–2022 school year. We did, however, take the next steps in building upon our financial success by fortifying Eton’s cash position. We did this by refinancing our debt at historically low interest rates, which allows us the ability to address opportunities in the marketplace if Fall 2021
