TREASURER’S NOTES

By Ed Baker (F’59)

January 25, 2010

By the time this is posted, 2009 will be well and truly ended, and a part of our history. I suspect a great many people will remember it as a year of recession, a year of joblessness, a year of penny-pinching. Others may choose to remember it as the historic first year of an unprecedented presidency, while many thousands will remember it for the loss of the last of the Kennedy brothers. As for me, I will remember 2009 as a year of good news and a year of recovery. Here’s the good news:

It was the year that U.S. News and World Report included

Balboa in the top 5% of the nation’s high schools based on

advanced placement scores;

It was the year that Balboa was ranked sixth in the City’s

Academic Performance Index;

It was the year that JROTC won a reprieve from being shut

down, and the year that Balboa’s corps won first place in the

City-wide competition of Color Guards, Drum Corps, and

Squad Drill;

It was the year our Past Principal Gray was chosen to move

up to an important position within the Board of Education.

And here’s the recovery I spoke of:

In 2009, your Alumni Association recorded cash receipts of

$83,500 which included $42,700 in donations from (or in

memory of) our members. (2008 cash receipts were $54,100

while only $30,200 were incoming donations);

In 2009, your Alumni Association made donations to Balboa

in the amount of $39,700. $10,000 of those donations were

in the form of scholarship grants—including the first grant of

$5,000. (2008 donations to Balboa totaled only $35.000);

In 2009, your Alumni Association reduced house (internal

administration) expenses to $2,500, while 2008 house

expenses were $5,400).

Most of the good news, academic achievement, and financial recovery came about through the efforts of individual students, teachers, instructors, counselors, alumni members, and board members. Every reader of this column should pat him or herself on the back for making 2009 a year of good news.