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The Board is pursuing, to the extent possible, options that honor the legacy of The Meeting School. Several other Quaker schools shared our desire to see a semester school arise and offered to join a consortium. However no individual school is in a position to be the lead school; a new governance structure would be needed to continue this effort. We are now seeking additional proposals. We welcome participation in this process. We are willing to sell the School property essentially “at cost” for any purpose or purposes (including a semester school) that reflect and extend the life and spirit that have been embodied in The Meeting School. In addition, priority will be given to proposals for the whole property, and to those that commit to sustainable stewardship of the land. We will share work we have done and help in any other way we can to bring these ideas to fruition. Time is short. Our belief in the value of a Quaker semester school and in our ability to succeed has led us perilously close to exhausting our financial resources. If you have a proposal to purchase the property or know of someone else who might, please be in touch. Interested persons or groups should obtain a 'Request for Proposals' from office@meetingschool.org. The deadline for proposals is May 1. Our last option will be to place the property with a broker on the open market. While this news is certainly unexpected and most likely distressing, there is no hidden story. We simply were not able to raise the needed money or establish the necessary partnerships in the time we had available to go forward. Arrangements are being made with the NH Department of Education for permanent storage of transcripts and school records. The location of the archives has not yet been determined. Information about that and other matters concerning the School going forward will be available on our website: www.themeetingschool.org. We plan to maintain this site for a few years at a minimum. We are not able to plan further communications via postal mail because of the expense. Are you interested in having a final gathering at the School sometime in the late spring or early summer? Would you be willing to help plan and coordinate it? If you are interested in working on this, please contact the office by April 1. If someone steps forward to organize it, the School could provide the barn for a daytime event and inform the community through the website and email. Honoring the community that is the essence of The Meeting School and staying engaged one with another is high on the list of important tasks before us now. It is up to those of us who are and have been loved and nurtured by this community, to find ways to keep that connection and carry on that vision. As I said earlier in this letter, we are very nearly at the end of our financial resources. Our ability to wrap up School business in an orderly way and maintain care of the property until we are able to select the best proposal for the School's resources depends on your help. Please consider a donation, or a loan, to help assure we can choose what happens to this special place and not be forced to cut the process short because we do not have the means to do the right thing. Loans would be repaid at the time of sale. Thank you to all of you who have provided support to the School over the years. Financially, spiritually, with time and talent you have sustained us. You have supported the transformation of many lives. Thank you. If you have questions or thoughts, please contact me through the school or directly at DACHA@comcast.net. As always, I ask for your prayers.
Jeremiah Dickinson, | ||||||||||
