ALL IN
FAQs

Leading schools – and schools that strive to create leaders – never stop asking themselves: What can we do better? Kinkaid’s Board of Trustees and administrative leaders have long known that we could improve our facilities to serve our students and faculty more effectively. The School’s acquisition of the West campus in 2010 enabled us to give deep consideration to our campus master plan and the possibilities that opened to us by purchasing additional land. The overarching caliber of most of Kinkaid’s facilities brings into sharp focus two buildings that are inadequate when compared with the others. Built 55 years ago, the Upper School is past its useful life and can no longer facilitate the type of advanced learning our students deserve, and the Lower School building is simply too small to accomplish our ambitions for leading-edge education. The School is in a strong financial position, and our education is in demand among the best and brightest Houston students, so now is the time to create a new Upper School and to expand and renovate our Lower School.

Creation of the new facilities will enable us to bring new curricular programs to life, which will enhance the educational experience of our students and make available even more innovative opportunities to become leaders at Kinkaid. Put simply, the question isn’t “Why now?” The question is “Why wait?”

Our campaign goals are aligned with Kinkaid’s mission and core values and are guided by Kinkaid’s strategic priorities, affirmed by the Board of Trustees in 2020. The School’s priorities emerged from extensive surveys of parents and alumni, insights from students, faculty, staff, and the Board’s committee work. This is a comprehensive campaign, including capital and programmatic improvements, endowment growth, and sustained annual support that is essential to the daily work of students and faculty.

The Board of Trustees approves all annual and multi-year fundraising initiatives at the School, including this campaign.

Three members of Kinkaid’s Board of Trustees are serving as campaign co-chairs: Leslie Doggett ’75, Evan H. Katz, and Charles Lawrence ’96. In addition, Polly and Murry Bowden, Sandie and Ken Cowan, Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence, and Carroll and Hugh Ray are serving as honorary campaign chairs. These volunteer leaders are working closely with Head of School Jonathan Eades as well as members of the School’s Advancement staff to orchestrate the campaign. In addition, a campaign cabinet of parents, alumni, and other friends has been formed – more than 30 volunteers in total – who will be fundraising for the All In campaign.

If you would like to volunteer for the campaign, contact one of the co-chairs or Director of Advancement Tom Moore at 713-243-5045 or tom.moore@kinkaid.org.

The School began campaign fundraising with the Board’s approval in October 2021. The campaign and campaign pledges are expected to last through the 2027-2028 fiscal year.

In 2021, Kinkaid hired international fundraising consulting firm Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A) to conduct a feasibility study for a major capital campaign. Two major elements of the firm’s work were interviewing a large group of key School stakeholders and analyzing the School’s prior history of philanthropic support. The firm’s final report shared that the interviewees had deep interest in the School's campaign goals, and Kinkaid had a broad base of very generous donors.

Starting two years ago with an initial campaign working goal of $125 million, the Board recently increased that working goal to $180 million. Early extraordinary gifts from our community - representing more gifts than Kinkaid has received in its past four campaigns combined - have given Kinkaid's Board of Trustees the confidence to press forward with additional fundraising efforts in support of our Mission and Core Values. The goal is being raised due to inflation and some minor, but costly, enhanced increases in the scope of construction, including additional electrical needs for the buildings and expenses for operating the learning villages. The Board has negotiated a fixed price for the next phases of construction so we do not anticipate having to raise the goal again.

As of today, incredibly generous donors have committed over $150 million toward the $180 million working goal.

Thanks to the generosity of our community, Phase One of our facility improvements has been fully funded with philanthropy. Given the project scope, and as expected, we will secure a construction loan to cover upfront construction costs over the next two years as we begin the largest part of our three-phase project, the construction of the new Upper School Building. This loan, which is common for institutions to take so that construction can begin as donors are fulfilling pledge commitments over multi-year periods, will allow us to stay on schedule and on budget as we construct superior facilities that will double the academic space for our Upper School, upgrade our arts and athletic spaces, and renovate and grow our Lower School. As occurs with many construction projects at similar institutions, the School may have a modest residual loan in place for a period of time following the completion of construction.

Yes, we are working deliberately to ensure the full Kinkaid experience, including all academic, arts, and athletics programming as well as our beloved traditions from Waffle Wednesday to Field Day. This year, any disruptions to our daily lives on campus will be minor, and we have done intense planning to limit inconveniences to carpool, parking, and event venues.

Phase One of the construction began in October 2022 with the demolition of Harrison House and the construction of a new building in its place. Initially, and in preparation for Phase Two, the new building is designed to temporarily hold over 75% of Upper School classes, and those classrooms, along with a technologically advanced temporary “learning village” will provide a larger and upgraded learning environment for our current students. The Advancement Department temporarily relocated to The Commons to accommodate this construction.

Two additional projects in Phase One commenced later in the fall of 2022. The Doggett Gym was repurposed as the new central plant and an improved facility for information technology. The two tennis courts adjacent to the Fondren Gym were replaced by a two-story, 35,907 square foot fieldhouse that is more than double the size of the former Doggett Gym and now offers a more flexible and multi-use space for physical education and athletics. This building was completed in January 2024.

The centerpiece of Phase Two, which began in fall 2023, is the demolition and removal of the Upper School and the construction of an innovative two-story new Upper School in its current location. Once the new Upper School construction is finished, which we project will be in August 2025, Upper School classes will move into the new building. This will make way for the new structure on the Harrison House site to be reconfigured. This reconfiguration will expand space for Lower School classes and student support programs on the first floor as well as consolidate several all-school administrative offices on the second floor. In addition, the final phase of the project includes the repurposing of some of the Student Life Building to new visual and performing arts spaces.

The Expanded Lower School and Administrative Building (built during Phase One) is designed to hold over 75% of Upper School classes while a new Upper School is being built from August 2023 until summer 2025. During this time, Upper School classes will enjoy an increased average classroom size, from 425 sq ft to 525 sq ft. The remaining Upper School classes – mostly science – will be housed in a technologically advanced “learning village” on the west side of campus. The “learning village” will also house some athletic support and physical education facilities. All of these classrooms will provide an upgraded learning environment for our current students.

The temporary Upper School, which is the future Lower School and Administrative Building along San Felipe, was completed in August 2023. The Doggett Family Fieldhouse and Gymnasium was completed in January 2024. The new Upper School is scheduled to be completed by July 2025. The final repurposing of the building along San Felipe and the renovations to the Student Life Building and Lower School are scheduled to be completed by August 2026.

Depending on meeting fundraising and construction goals, the new Upper School will be open for the 2025-2026 school year.

The Lower School and Administrative Building was completed in August 2023 and should convert to its intended purpose by August 2026.

The new Upper School will more than double the size of the former space. There will be more and larger classrooms, athletic and physical education space will increase by more than two thirds, and there will be numerous new spaces, such as a design lab, entrepreneurship suite, STEM labs, wellness classroom, senior student center, two-story student center, alumni center, resource center, and two-acre lawn.

The Lower School and Administrative Building will double the space for Lower School cocurriculars and student support programs on the first floor. The second floor will bring together several administrative departments, including Admission and Enrollment Management, Advancement, Business Office, Strategic Communication, Facilities, and Human Resources, as well as Parents' Association spaces for greater operational alignment and efficiency.

The existing Student Life Building will be reconfigured with more arts spaces, such as a second dance studio, video suite, multimedia space, art studios, and orchestra practice room, as well as an expanded Head of School suite. Renovations to the original Lower School Building include six new classrooms and additional space for the health center.

Enrollment will increase slightly in the Lower School, where one section will be added gradually, one grade at a time. Adding a section will allow us to decrease class size (from 16 to 14 in PreK and from 18 to 16 in K-5), thereby allowing for more individual attention for each student. Middle School class size will remain the same. Enrollment in the Upper School will increase by 10-15 students per grade. The graduating class is currently around 150 students and will grow to around 165 students.

In addition to offering larger academic classrooms, the campaign will create a Center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math to help the School enhance its programs in these areas. Additionally, a new Center for Wellbeing and Success and a Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Finance will be created.

The Center for Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) will serve as a locus of new courses, partnerships, and student research with Houston’s medical, technology, and higher education facilities.

Kinkaid has long embraced the importance of providing robust STEM educational opportunities for our students. These fields have been an essential and highly successful part of our School's curriculum for decades.

Our current academic programming continues to fully prepare our students in STEM; however, we want to go further. Plans for Kinkaid's new Upper School Science Center have been created with expanded STEM programs in mind. The building will include new maker spaces, best-in-class labs, and classrooms to facilitate programmatic growth and state-of-the-art technologies. We envision new and enhanced coursework in coding and data science, robotics, and cyber security.

With Houston being one of the world's centers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, we intend to leverage the relevant and vast STEM expertise in our parent, grandparent, alumni, and parent of alumni communities to enhance teaching and learning at Kinkaid.

Kinkaid's mission-driven focus on the wholly-healthy child is the underlying driver for the establishment of the Center for Wellbeing and Success. This center will build on Kinkaid’s well-established programs to provide our students with personalized academic and emotional support and will expand our ability to offer approaches for building resilience.

Through the Center, Kinkaid will further strengthen academic advising, learning support, personal support, and college counseling, and we will enhance professional development on these topics for faculty and staff as well as parents. Just as importantly, we will create an all-school scope and sequence for wellness and age-appropriate focuses on the foundations of physical fitness, positive relationships, healthy decision making, nutrition, drug and alcohol education, our students' online lives, and other pillars of modern student wellness.

The Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Finance will provide more clearly defined and increased business course offerings, including new courses and programs in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and capital market investing. In leadership development, we will incorporate new programs and course offerings with Interim Term, Peer Mentors, leadership councils, community service programs, Alumni Leadership Day, and the activities of clubs, athletic teams, and visual and performing arts leadership groups. It is our intention to become only the third high school in Texas to offer a course in which students will invest real money, making portfolio pitches and updates to our Kinkaid Endowment Board.

Yes, you may choose to fulfill your pledge on a schedule ranging from a one-time payment to installments over up to four years.

Yes, there will be many ways in which Kinkaid will recognize the donors who make All In campaign contributions. For more information, please contact Director of Advancement Tom Moore at 713-243-5045 or tom.moore@kinkaid.org.

The All In Campaign is a comprehensive campaign; it started during the 2021-2022 school year and will end after the 2027-2028 school year. Both Kinkaid Fund gifts during that period and campaign pledges made during that period count towards a donor's total All In Campaign contribution and recognition, but they support different priorities. Net proceeds from events such as the Auction, Kinkaid Open, and Sporting Clays Benefit will be counted towards the campaign goal, but individual donor's support of those events will not be counted as part of an individual's campaign giving.

Please contact Director of Advancement Tom Moore at 713-243-5045 or tom.moore@kinkaid.org.