POMFRET —  Rectory School Headmaster Fred Williams recently announced that Rectory School reached the goal of raising $2.5 million by 186 donors toward The Tang Challenge for Excellence in Teaching. The School will now receive the $2.5 million match by the Tang Family, and in total have raised more than $7.5 million in the Tang Family Endowment for Excellence in Teaching. These funds have an immediate and sustained impact on faculty benefits and salaries as they will be used to attract and retain the best educators and provide salaries that reward Rectory’s faculty for their dedication and excellence.
Freddy Nagle, Rectory School’s director of Development, said, “We want to first thank Oscar and Kevin Tang for their continued support and leadership at Rectory, and for offering a challenge that allowed our entire School community to help reward the best possible performance in Rectory’s classrooms. We also want to thank everyone who helped us reach this milestone through their generous support. Because of this support, we were able to achieve this amazing milestone, and now Rectory School will be able to attract and retain the best faculty our industry has to offer.”
The Tang Challenge
In 2015, in recognition of the most important aspect of Rectory—the people—Oscar Tang ‘53 and his son, Kevin ‘82 committed $5 million to establish the Tang Family Endowment for Excellence in Teaching.  The Tangs gave $2.5 million outright and, in an effort to inspire an even more impactful fund-raising effort, the Tangs offered a 1:1 match of all gifts made by other donors until June of 2018 up to an additional $2.5 million. The successful completion of this challenge, six months ahead of schedule, gave Rectory a total infusion of $7.5 million.
Each year, Rectory will be able to draw a percentage from the Tang Family Endowment that will help supply the School with the necessary funds to support our teachers with increased benefits and salaries.
The immediate impact on our faculty, said Williams: $50,000 was used to increase teachers’ salaries in 2016; $100,000 in additional funds were used to increase teachers’ salaries in 2017; $325,000+ in additional funds will be generated annually to increase teachers’ salaries.