The proposal approved by the school board will cost approximately S$366.8 million with S$18.1 million of additional contingency.

We are in a very strong financial position. We have been clear that we will not ask for any special tuition charges or increases in tuition beyond our annual inflation-based increases that have averaged 3.5 percent a year over the last decade. 

For many years, we have been able to save much of the revenue generated by our annual facilities fee. Those savings were put into our capital reserves to pay for future campus expenses. As a result of these savings, we have approximately S$295 million in capital reserves that can be applied to this project. Going forward every year, we will have additional revenues from the facilities fee to help pay for construction costs. In addition, we plan to take out up to S$100 million of debt that we would pay back over the long term. 

Note that we do not plan on using any of our “rainy day” fund reserves. These operating reserves currently total S$84 million (representing six months of operating expenses), and we want to ensure we continue to have this fund available should we encounter any severe economic challenges. 

Please see below for a graph of our operating and capital reserves at the end of last school year and projected end of this school year. With the current drop in financial markets, these capital reserves may end up being somewhat lower than the S$295 million projected, but still sufficient for the project.

*Based on 2019-20 projected cash flows and investment income of 3.5 percent

Our current plan is to begin construction in 2021 and end in 2026. The graph below captures the phases.

We are working hard to bring the benefits to students as soon as reasonably possible. We are hopeful to bring some of the new dining and community benefits to our high school students, as well as upgrades to our performing arts facilities by spring of 2022, with additional classroom, arts, and science spaces by fall of 2023. We are targeting a move-in date for the new elementary school in the fall of 2023 and the new middle school in the fall of 2025.  

We worked closely with students in the design process and students also served as members of our campus upgrade advisory group. When we showed students how we had incorporated their ideas into the design, they expressed great enthusiasm for the project and in the cases of some juniors and seniors expressed regret that they would not be around to enjoy the changes!

No students will have to be moved off campus or to different parts of the campus during construction. We are making every effort to minimize disruption to our students. This includes phasing construction to keep it as separate as possible from classrooms. For example, the new elementary school will be built 400+ meters from the existing elementary school, minimizing disruption during the building process.  

We will seek to have most disruptive work done in the summer or during non-school hours. Likewise, we will invest in high-quality, acoustically designed fencing to reduce air and noise pollution. (We will set up designated areas and dedicated routes to/from those areas to separate construction traffic and work from our students.)????

Our faculty have spent years engaged in research and development work to improve the curriculum and its delivery to students. During that same time over 150 faculty members worked in design teams to help outline what they need from a new building to support their delivery of the improved curriculum to best meet the needs of students. This proposal is the result of significant work by our faculty and when we shared the plans with our faculty, they generally expressed excitement and optimism to see this proposal come to life.

The new buildings will be designed to provide flexibility for classroom configuration. The new buildings will be able to be divided into single classrooms, shared classrooms or a mix of the two. The building architecture will not dictate what classroom configuration we will offer; that will be determined based on the needs of our students. 

We know how important it is for our athletics programs to have access to the quality and size of field space we have now. We will not begin construction until we have completed the building of alternative field space. We are in the final stages of securing temporary fields for our athletes to use when construction begins. These fields will be immediately adjacent to the west gate of the high school, as seen in the diagram below. This means we will still be able to host large athletic events like IASAS and our student athletes will be able to continue training throughout the construction phase. The temporary fields will result in a net increase of field space for our athletes.

Our current enrollment for the 2019-20 school year is 4,030. As we continue to expand the Chinese immersion program, we anticipate our enrollment to  grow to about 4,225 (4 to 5 percent) students over the next five years.

We are pleased to say that our re-enrollment numbers for next year are the highest they have ever been, at over 3,400 students. In addition, we have the largest number of applicants that we have had in more than a decade. We have waitlists at just about every grade level, and we are confident that we will continue to see steady enrollment.

We have spoken with other IASAS schools and other peer schools in the region who have undergone similar major construction projects and the information they provide is that typically there is an increase in demand during construction because families are eager to ensure their child has a seat in the school to take advantage of the buildings when they open.