One of the most exceptional aspects of Gillispie School is our teaching staff. These dedicated employees are the lifeblood of the Gillispie Experience, and Gillispie and its community invests heavily in recruiting, retaining, and enriching these extraordinary individuals through the Gillispie School Endowment for Excellence in Teaching.

In 2009, an anonymous donor family seeded the Endowment with a gift of $1.5 million and offered a challenge grant to match the gifts and pledges of our community for an additional $1.5 million. With great enthusiasm, our community met the challenge, and in 2011, the Endowment for Excellence in Teaching was established with a total of $4.5 million.

The Endowment’s purpose is to retain and secure the best teachers while creating a culture that makes excellence in teaching a top priority of the School. Eighty percent of the interest garnered from the corpus of the funds is used each year toward supplementing salaries or providing discretionary funds for outstanding work, while approximately 20% is designated for professional growth opportunities.

To date, the Gillispie School Endowment of Excellence in Teaching has paid out over $1.67 million to our faculty.

We give immense thanks to Chris Freundt, Campaign Chair, and to our anonymous donor family who gave $3 million in challenge grants, and to the countless individuals and organizations that met that challenge.