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About 50 faculty and staff at Oak Ridge Military Academy agreed Friday to relinquish approximately five weeks of salary to help the small, private school through an economic crisis.

The decision came after President Roy Berwick told employees April 2 that he could not make payroll the next day.

“It hurts them, it hurts me, it hurts everybody,” Berwick said of Friday’s action. “(But) we will get five weeks of salary to help with the bottom line. The savings is what is going to keep us afloat.”

Academy officials said six people opted not to give up their pay.

“That wasn’t because they didn’t want to,” said Berwick, who did not attend the meeting. “They just felt they couldn’t.”

The unpaid salaries will save about $157,000.

But that’s just a small part of what the school requires to operate.

“We still need help,” said Terrill Sandiford, director of development and alumni affairs. “We are not out of the woods. The school still needs financial support.”

Administrators said the school is suffering from a 12 percent drop in enrollment and a significant decline in giving this year, plus the ongoing burden of a $4.3 million debt on an academic building, which opened in 2001.

School leaders have taken a number of actions to save money, including not filling vacant positions and laying off two people.

Making matters worse, Sandiford said, the school has no endowment. That money was used by prior administrations to keep the institution running earlier in the decade.

“That hurts,” said Sandiford, who joined the school in 2007. “There’s nothing to fall back on.”

Lt. Col. Carl Lloyd, the school’s commandant, organized Friday’s meeting, which began at 8:30 a.m. in the school’s chapel. Efforts to reach Lloyd for comment were unsuccessful.

“The school is struggling short term,” Sandiford said in explaining Lloyd’s motives. “If we are willing to make a short-term sacrifice, it is going to help the academy in the long term.

“Whatever I have to do I will do it,” he said. “I will be with Oak Ridge sink or swim. I believe in Oak Ridge. I believe in what we do for kids.”

The co-ed institution at 2317 Oak Ridge Road opened in 1852. It has an enrollment of 154 in grades six through 12.

Financial woes aren’t new to the academy, but officials say the situation is tighter this year than in recent times — evidence the school’s inability to meet payroll last week.

“That was a severe day for me,” said Berwick, the academy’s president since 2005. “We have always made payroll and always paid our bills.”

Berwick said two anonymous donors have pledged $50,000 each if the school can raise $400,000. He said the academy needs about $48,000 to reach that goal.

On top of that, Sandiford said, the school needs an additional $250,000 to carry it into June.

“We would have room to breathe,” he said of the extra money. “(That) would be the energy boost the school needs right now.”
Sandiford said he would like to launch a $6 million fundraising campaign later this year to pay off the building debt and begin a new endowment.

“That debt is what is hanging over us right now,” he said. “Until we get rid of that, it is going to be a struggle.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com