St. Margaret’s School has served for over a century as a unique and vital institution dedicated to educating young women in the Episcopal tradition. As the only all-girls boarding school within the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia (CSDV) consortium, its role has been both distinct and indispensable.
Why do we need Save our St. Margaret’s? An independent voice to speak for the School community.
CSDV describes a collaborative structure between itself and the St. Margaret’s Board of Governors, noting that the School has two ex officio seats on the CSDV Board of Trustees and that the President of CSDV sits on St. Margaret’s Board of Governors. It also emphasizes the operational support CSDV provides, including shared employment structures, standard contracts, and benefits administration.
This description, however, overlooks a critical reality: St. Margaret’s does not operate with true self-governance. It does not own its campus, cannot enter into contracts, and lacks authority over its own finances. All major decisions are made by the trustees of CSDV—many of whom are far removed from the school community. As a result, those with the most day-to-day responsibility for the School’s well-being have little to no authority to shape its future.
The lack of independence extends even to public communication. The St. Margaret’s Board of Governors is effectively under a speech embargo—any statements must first be reviewed and vetted by CSDV’s legal counsel. This enforced silence only deepens the disconnect between the School’s leadership and the community it serves.
As Sandra S. Mitchell, President of Save Our St. Margaret’s and a former member of the Board of Governors, writes:
“I served on the St. Margaret’s Board of Governors from 1994 to 2002. Towards the end of my tenure, we were informed that another nearby diocesan school would begin admitting girls. We were assured it would not affect enrollment at St. Margaret’s. I was aghast. Time has proven otherwise.
Now, I find myself asking: Why did Church Schools permit this change, knowing the impact it would have on St. Margaret’s? How has that school been allowed to incur substantial debt while St. Margaret’s has none? Why was St. Margaret’s allowed to move forward with faculty and enrollment contracts in February [of this year], only to be undermined in June before all pledges were even due and our enrollment season was still ongoing? Something doesn’t pass the litmus test.”
The structure imposed by CSDV leaves the St. Margaret’s community with all the responsibility but none of the power. We are stakeholders, not stockholders within the CSDV System. This imbalance has had serious consequences, as strategic decisions made by CSDV have adversely affected St. Margaret’s. When concerns were raised about the long-term impact of introducing co-education at a nearby diocesan school, our warnings were dismissed. When St. Margaret’s was required to maintain strict fiscal austerity while other System schools were permitted to take on significant debt, our objections were ignored. When St. Margaret’s leaders raised concerns about CSDV initiatives that undermined enrollment by forecasting potential closure, those concerns were again disregarded.
And that is precisely why Save Our St. Margaret’s exists: to ensure the voices of those who love, serve, and sustain this School are no longer excluded from decisions that define its future.
MAKING THE CASE
The Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia launched a landing page addressing their side of the story on June 14, 2025. The following information reflects CSDV’s narrative from that page and the corresponding responses from Save Our St. Margaret’s.
CSDV: WHY DID I RECEIVE THE EMAIL?
The June 5 emails from the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia (CSDV) went only to St. Margaret’s faculty and staff and to families who have entered into a 2025-2026 enrollment contract with the school.
To proceed in good faith with the people who have contractual relationships with CSDV, the Trustees felt, it was important to be candid with these individuals and families regarding the status of St. Margaret’s enrollment and financial position and risks to the school’s continued operation in the 2025-26 academic year.
On June 6, the Chair of the St. Margaret’s Board of Governors, who is also a CSDV Trustee, sent a message to school alumnae and donors that included the June 5 message from CSDV to parents.
SOS RESPONSE:
The CSDV demonstrated inconsistency and strategic maneuvering to close St. Margaret’s.
In mid-January, CSDV required that St. Margaret’s demonstrate it had sufficient resources to operate for the 2025–2026 academic year. The School community responded swiftly and in good faith. By February 5, $2.6 million in pledges and donations had been raised — meeting the financial benchmark set by CSDV. In response, CSDV authorized the School to issue enrollment and employment contracts for the coming year, and families and staff relied on that assurance in making their commitments.
But on May 28, without warning and over the objections of School leadership, CSDV reversed course. In an email to faculty, staff, and families under contract for 2025–2026, it signaled its intent to close St. Margaret’s. The consequences were immediate and devastating. The message undermined student recruitment, cast doubt among committed families, and deeply offended donors whose pledges were not due until June 30. It shattered trust, destabilized progress, and put the School’s future in serious jeopardy.
This abrupt shift—after public commitments were made and relied upon—represents not only a reversal but a profound betrayal of the students, employees, and supporters who have fought to preserve St. Margaret’s and fulfill the expectations CSDV itself had set.
CSDV: WHAT IS CHURCH SCHOOLS IN THE DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA?
CSDV is a system of private, Episcopal schools serving more than 3,500 students and employing more than 900 full-time employees across Virginia in six schools, including St. Margaret’s School. CSDV operates under the management and control of the Board of Trustees.
The six schools are owned by CSDV; while each school uses a separate, legally registered name, they are not separate legal entities.
The Board of Trustees has the ultimate responsibility and authority for the operation of the schools. CSDV provides direction and oversight on enrollment and employment policies and contracts, reviews each school’s financial reports, and approves annual budgets and tuition rates, among other things.
The Trustees generally delegate significant authority for the day-to-day operation of each school to a school-specific Board of Governors. The Trustees generally—but not always—defer to recommendations from the Boards of Governors.
SOS RESPONSE:
The CSDV is a “family” of sorts.
CSDV often describes its network as a “family of schools,” guided by a shared mission and a commitment that no one school should act in a way that harms another. This ethos of mutual support and accountability is commendable — and necessary for a healthy system. Yet, in the case of St. Margaret’s, it has not been upheld. When a nearby diocesan school was permitted to admit girls — over the objections of St. Margaret’s leadership — there was no acknowledgment of the competitive pressure this would place on enrollment. Instead of receiving added support to adjust to this headwind, St. Margaret’s was later subjected to strict fiscal austerity as it tried to regain its footing. These actions stand in tension with the spirit of collective stewardship that CSDV professes.
CSDV: WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CSDV AND ST. MARGARET’S SCHOOL?
CSDV founded St. Margaret’s School in 1921, and it has special standing within the CSDV system as its only all-girls boarding school.
As indicated above, CSDV’s Board of Trustees and the St. Margaret’s Board of Governors work in coordination to support and advance the school. The school has two ex officio seats on the CSDV Board of Trustees, and the President of CSDV sits on the St. Margaret’s Board of Governors.
There is also a close operational relationship. CSDV provides and facilitates certain benefits, coverages, services and opportunities that the school would otherwise find unavailable. Faculty and staff are employed by CSDV. Each school’s enrollment and employment contracts and policies follow a standard and a format established and maintained by CSDV.
SOS RESPONSE:
St. Margaret’s within the System: The Disfavored Daughter
As discussed above, the situation at St. Margaret’s reveals a fundamental flaw: the School bears all the responsibility for the day-to-day welfare of students, faculty, and programs—yet it holds virtually no real authority over its future. Major decisions, including the School’s possible closure, rest entirely with the trustees of CSDV, some of whom have never set foot on campus.
This structure leaves the School community powerless to shape its own destiny, even as it carries the burden of implementing CSDV’s directives. The people most invested in the success of St. Margaret’s—the educators, parents, alumnae, and local leaders— are sidelined in decisions that affect lives, livelihoods, and an institution with over a century of history. St. Margaret’s alumnae, donors, faculty and families are key stakeholders but have no voice or vote with the CSDV trustees. This imbalance has come at a cost. From the recent reversal on the 2025–2026 school year to the long-ignored warnings about enrollment loss to a nearby co-ed competitor within the System, decisions have consistently been made without regard for St. Margaret’s best interests.
Worse still, it is hard to escape the sense that for some decision-makers, St. Margaret’s value lies not in its mission or impact but in its location—prime riverfront property that could yield significant financial returns to the CSDV system if the School is shuttered. That is not stewardship. It is asset management disguised as education policy.
Our community deserves transparency, respect, and a voice in decisions that affect the girls, families, and faculty who bring this School to life. It’s time to ask: who truly governs St. Margaret’s—and whose interests are being served?
CSDV: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT ST. MARGARET’S SCHOOL?
At their regular meeting in May 2025, the CSDV Trustees voiced concern about the pace of enrollment and development efforts at St. Margaret’s this spring. They decided parents, faculty and staff with contractual relationships with the school should be made aware that:
St. Margaret’s had yet to meet established goals critical to holding a 2025-2026 school year.
The school remained underenrolled, with roughly half the completed enrollment contracts called for in St. Margaret’s budget next year. This places further stress on that budget, which relies on meeting enrollment and tuition revenue targets.
The school’s cash on hand was far short of the amount needed to operate through 2025-2026. While St. Margaret’s reported raising $2.6 million in late 2024 and early 2025, $2.1 million of that came as pledged gifts to be paid by June 30, 2025, not cash.
The school’s endowment and other specific assets and reserves have covered St. Margaret’s annual operating deficits over the past 15 years, but these reserves are now nearly depleted and would be inadequate to cover a material budget shortfall.
The overall financial status of the school in May raised questions for Trustees as to whether St. Margaret’s will have the resources to operate next year as envisioned.
At the same time, the Trustees recognized that St. Margaret’s still had roughly a month to achieve enrollment and fundraising goals. School leaders have been unflaggingly optimistic about their ability to reach them both.
SOS RESPONSE:
CSDV had a choice; it voted against St. Margaret’s.
At its core, this was a choice. CSDV had the opportunity to stand behind St. Margaret’s — to honor its own cash test benchmark ($2.6 million) and give the School the final month it needed to fulfill the commitments already in motion and complete summer enrollment. Instead, it took steps to undermine the School. That choice not only betrayed the trust of donors and families but also disregarded more than a decade of careful contingency planning intended to avoid precisely this kind of destabilizing summer disruption.
For years, both CSDV and St. Margaret’s had agreed that if a closure decision ever had to be made, it would be made mid-year—not in the summer, when options for families and faculty are most limited. In February 2025, after the School met the established cash test through documented pledges, CSDV authorized the issuance of employment and enrollment contracts. Those pledges were not due until June 30, and there has been no indication they were at risk.
To then issue a mid-summer communication to families and staff suggesting contract termination options—well before the pledge deadline and the end of the recruitment season—runs counter to the very principles of planning, responsibility, and dignity that the School and System have long professed. If the concern was a potential shortfall, that could be responsibly addressed through bridge financing secured by the School’s substantial real estate assets. But to upend lives prematurely was not just poor judgment—it is a betrayal of the values the System claims to uphold. The School community, acting in reliance on CSDV’s earlier approval to proceed with contracts, was blindsided by a reversal that threatened to undo months of work and erode trust at the most critical juncture.
CSDV: HOW DID THE SITUATION REACH THIS POINT?
While the driving issues are financial, the underlying cause has been a societal shift away from the kind of education St. Margaret’s exemplifies.
This shift has adversely affected St. Margaret’s admissions and enrollment: The 70 girls who enrolled for 2024-2025 was about half the total in 2009-2010.
Enrollment is the primary way schools like St. Margaret’s pay their bills. This decline, then, has driven the school’s recent operating deficits: exceeding $2 million for each of the past five years, and, in the most recent year, topping $3 million. To cover these deficits, nearly all of the school’s endowment and other reserves have been consumed. Hardly any safety net remains.
The CSDV Trustees acknowledge the heroic efforts by the Board of Governors and other school leaders to overcome these challenges and deficits, through many actions taken over many years, but to no avail.
SOS RESPONSE:
The challenges are real, but we’re not giving up.
St. Margaret’s is facing real challenges—some of them created by CSDV itself. The drop in enrollment CSDV cites coincides with the introduction of co-educational boarding at the previous all-boys brother school to St. Margaret’s. That shift, along with demographic trends and lingering post-pandemic pressures, has made recruitment more difficult.
But we are not giving up. The School community has rallied. We raised $2.6 million to sustain operations while rebuilding enrollment. Alumnae giving has increased tenfold over the past five years. We’ve launched new STREAM programming tied to our riverfront setting, reintroduced field hockey, and built competitive teams in basketball and crew—including a state championship title in basketball.
Our community partnerships are growing stronger. Essex County students use our outdoor classroom for science instruction. Our students volunteer and intern at local institutions, including the museum, the newspaper, and the town council. This fall, our National Honor Society members will tutor local elementary students in reading and math.
In short, we are doing everything possible to keep our community together—retaining faculty, supporting families, and growing enrollment. Open houses are scheduled throughout the summer.
As of June 30, we’ve retained over 90% of our currently enrolled students—a remarkable feat given the cloud of uncertainty cast by CSDV. Historically, St. Margaret’s sees enrollment grow through the summer and into September. Just last year, we enrolled 18 additional students during the summer season.
CSDV: DID CSDV REACH AN “AGREEMENT” WITH ST. MARGARET’S?
No. This misconception seems to have come from a complaint filed against CSDV in Essex County Circuit Court on June 5. Here are the facts to know:
Each CSDV school must demonstrate to the Trustees by January 1 that it has the wherewithal to operate throughout the following school year. At the request of the St. Margaret’s Board of Governors, CSDV Trustees extended this deadline last winter.
After a fundraising appeal that lasted into early February, the school attested that it had met its funding requirements. With that assurance, the Board of Trustees authorized the school on Feb. 5 to issue enrollment and employment contracts for 2025-2026.
This authorization — for the school to issue contracts — was the only conclusive action taken by the Trustees.
Officials of a new outside group called “Save Our St. Margaret’s” characterize the Feb. 5 authorization as some sort of binding “agreement” that St. Margaret’s would conduct a 2025-2026 school year.
“Save Our St. Margaret’s” is wrong: Even with the Trustees’ action, the school still has the responsibility of documenting that it has secured the $2.6 million necessary to operate in 2025-2026 and of providing Trustees with updates on enrollment.
Between the Feb. 5 meeting and the May one, unfortunately, St. Margaret’s enrollment and tuition revenue projections showed no signs of being on track for significant improvement from the prior year.
CSDV Trustees voiced concern about this at the latter meeting and concluded the risk to the upcoming year was too great not to notify the parents, faculty and staff under contract.
SOS REPONSE:
Yes! There was an understanding.
School leaders understood the $2.6 million Annual Fund target as the sole contingency for moving forward with the 2025–2026 academic year. Once those pledges were secured in February, planning began in earnest. CSDV subsequently authorized the issuance of enrollment and employment contracts. To now suggest that no agreement had been reached belies the clear and coordinated actions taken by both CSDV and the School at that time.
To date, the School has met the financial benchmark set by CSDV: as of June 30, $2.6 million has been collected for the Annual Fund.
CSDV: WHAT CAN OR SHOULD I DO NOW?
The St. Margaret’s Sisterhood has accomplished enormous good over 104 years, and it is important to remember that its story has not concluded.
School officials are working valiantly to meet their goals, and CSDV’s support of these efforts remains unwavering. St. Margaret’s leaders report that the level of enthusiasm and commitment has never been higher.
In their June 5 emails, Trustees expressed the hope that the St. Margaret’s community would remain committed to the school. To that end, CSDV has extended an offer of flexibility in its contracts with faculty, staff and parents, allowing people the additional time they need to reflect and recommit.
SOS RESPONSE:
Still climbing the hill, with the doors wide open.
Like Christ, we’ve picked up our cross, and we’re carrying it up the hill.
Despite the challenges imposed by CSDV, School leaders continue working every day to meet enrollment targets for the fall. Unfortunately, CSDV’s premature announcement has had its intended effect: several students have since transferred to the nearby System school. Still, our doors remain open, and the School is actively recruiting—even amid the uncertainty CSDV has created.
To help offset the loss in tuition revenue and support the School’s continued efforts, we ask for your support. Please consider making a gift to the St. Margaret’s Annual Fund. And just as importantly, let your voice be heard. Contact CSDV and share your St. Margaret’s story. Show them—and the world—what this School means to you and why it’s worth fighting for.
Reference the Richmond Times-Dispatch article dated June 16, 2025: https://richmond.com/news/local/education/article_aa765474-441a-4ce3-810b-835e66a9bb1f.html
CSDV: HOW CAN I HELP ST. MARGARET’S?
St. Margaret’s officials are focused primarily on enrollment, since that is the area of greatest opportunity and benefit. At the same time, this is also a moment when philanthropy can have enormous benefit, shoring up much-needed reserves that will allow the school to keep educating and preparing girls for meaningful adult lives.
If you are in a position to play a leading financial role for St. Margaret’s, please contact Edwina Bell, the school’s director of advancement.
By contrast, donations to the group “Save Our St. Margaret’s” can only hurt St. Margaret’s. The school greatly needs the support of every member of its passionate community, whether that takes the form of philanthropy, prayers or volunteerism.
“Save Our St. Margaret’s” fundraising campaign explicitly intends to fund a legal battle against CSDV. Such donations will benefit lawyers, not the school nor its students.
SOS RESPONSE:
Legal recourse, only if necessary.
In the event CSDV votes to close the School at its July 10 meeting, SOS intends to seek legal relief to allow the School to move forward as agreed upon by the School and CSDV in February of this year.
To that end, we have set up a legal defense fund. Every dollar will go directly toward retaining legal counsel and protecting the rights of students, families, alumnae, and donors who believe in St. Margaret’s.
Reference: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-our-st-margarets
Please continue to donate to St. Margaret’s School directly. Demonstrate your belief that our School has value today and for years to come. Our daughters, nieces, and young women from the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, across the country and from around the world thank you for your support.