That week, Head of School Rachel Rodriguez summoned upper school teachers into the Posner Lecture Hall to share a surprise announcement. (She separately shared the news with middle school faculty.) She let them know that the RE Board of Trustees approved $10,000 stipends for RE’s full-time teachers, approximately the amount expected annually from a newly created cost-of-living endowment once it is fully funded. Patrick and Kristen McMahon, RE parents, provided the seed funding in January 2024 for the endowment to address a growing challenge in South Florida for teachers: the rising cost of housing and other expenses. 

The best part, Rodriguez told teachers, was that payments on the stipends would kick in immediately, appearing in their upcoming paychecks. 

Grace burst into tears at the announcement. 
 
“I was stunned,” she said. “I am so incredibly grateful and touched by the endowment gift. This is life-changing for me and my family.” That weekend, she and her husband purchased a used Jeep – a 2016 Wrangler – with, she noted, functioning air conditioning and a warranty. 

Gratitude has abounded as teachers have learned more about the endowment – officially the Patrick and Kristen McMahon Faculty Endowment Fund and informally the COLA or cost-of-living-allowance endowment. The stipends were a central focus of a November story in Bloomberg News, which reported on the difficulty of luring and retaining teachers in Miami amid skyrocketing costs for housing and insurance (pushed upward by foreign buyers, investors and high wage earners who flooded South Florida in the aftermath of the pandemic).

Calling Miami “one of the country’s most expensive cities,” the article noted that a 75 percent increase in housing prices in the past five years has left the city near the bottom of housing affordability nationally – a major problem for current teachers and a red flag for faculty considering moving to the area. 

The rising cost-of-living has affected even the school’s most veteran faculty members. Joe Mauro, in his 40th year of teaching at Ransom Everglades, recalled moving to Miami from Los Angeles in the 1980s to escape the high prices on the west coast, and by the early 2000s he had purchased a condo about 15 minutes from campus. For two decades, he managed his mortgage and condo fees comfortably. In the past five years, however, his homeowner’s costs have spiraled: his building levied $35,000 in condominium special assessments for repairs to the 50-year-old structure, and then handed owners consecutive 15- and 35-percent hikes in annual homeowners’ association fees to cover the soaring property insurance rates. 

News of the stipends brought a sense of relief. 

“Everyone was very happy with the amount, and surprised at how big the amount was,” Mauro said. “We are extremely grateful for everything the board is doing for the school and teachers. It’s a wonderful gesture, and appreciated very much.” 
 
Teachers sound alarms; school leaders listen

Though RE’s teachers have historically been among the highest paid in Florida, the post-pandemic housing crisis hit hard. Teachers sounded alarms about the challenges they were facing in internal surveys, and some departed RE because they could no longer afford to live in Miami. English Department Coordinator Matthew Helmers, who arrived to RE in the summer of 2020 from Arizona, stood up at a faculty meeting after the pandemic and spoke out about the issue, sharing an emotional plea on behalf of his peers. 

A solution was needed, he said – and soon.

In the summer of 2022, Head of School Rachel Rodriguez re-joined RE as Interim Head of School (she had served at RE in several roles including Head of the Middle School). At the same time, David Clark ’86 returned to Ransom Everglades as Chief Operating Officer. (Clark also had worked previously at RE in various roles.) From their first meeting with trustees, they pressed the board for assistance for the school’s teachers.

“Rachel and David were massive ambassadors and supporters, asking the board to help our faculty,” said Jonathan Fitzpatrick, then the chair of RE’s board. “They made it clear that our teachers are the school’s most important asset.” 

Already working to address the problem, the board of trustees attacked it with an increased sense of urgency. Board members found that the cost of living within a reasonable proximity of the school had increased by 100 percent since the pandemic, and an analysis of teacher addresses showed that some were choosing to live more than an hour away while others were moving from apartment to apartment as rents increased. Helmers was one of those teachers. Between his first and second year at RE, he said, his rent doubled in price.

The following year, he found a cheaper apartment, but still struggled with the rent. He began to consider picking up a supplemental job to create more income.  

As teachers fretted, trustees explored a variety of potential solutions. Fitzpatrick was joined by board treasurer Miguel Dueñas ’95 – now board chair – and others in efforts to acquire or build faculty housing. Those options, however, proved fraught with issues. What kind of housing could accommodate both single teachers and faculty members with a spouse and children? The available options seemed insufficient, and acquiring nearby land to build housing brought financial and other challenges. Trustees realized that any construction project would take years to complete. Another issue was that not all faculty wanted housing from RE. Some needed funds for childcare, insurance or, in Grace’s case, transportation. 

“We wanted a solution,” Dueñas said, “that would help everyone out of the gate.” 

It was then that trustees met with the McMahons.

Patrick and Kristen McMahon, both born in New Jersey, brought a passion for philanthropy and education to Ransom Everglades when they arrived in 2021. Founder and Chief Investment Officer of MKP Capital Management, Patrick McMahon has served on the board of his alma mater, Villanova University, generously supporting the school’s most recent capital campaign. An Ivy League champion in field hockey while at Brown University, Kristen McMahon contributed to a number of non-profit boards and committees and agreed to join RE’s board last summer.  

With two children at RE, the McMahons became increasingly connected to the school community and wanted to find a meaningful and powerful way to extend their contributions. Fitzpatrick and Dueñas let them know the board had an idea for a creative endowment that would support teachers. All that was missing, the trustees explained in fall 2023, was a lead donor. 

The idea excited the McMahons. Patrick’s mother had served as a teacher’s aide, and Kristen’s mother worked as a school teacher. In Closter, N.J., she taught every level from nursery school through eighth grade, primarily as an English teacher. Kristen McMahon idolized her mother and her teaching colleagues. Even at an early age, she understood their importance to the local school and larger society.
  
So when they learned of the proposed endowment, the McMahons jumped.  

“When the idea was first presented to Pat and me, it resonated with us immediately,” Kristen McMahon said. “What intrigued us was the dual impact: not only would the endowment directly benefit our teachers, but it would also enhance the educational experience for every Ransom Everglades student by helping to attract and retain top talent. The excellence of our faculty is a tremendous gift to every child who enters Ransom Everglades, and demonstrating to our teachers how much we value and support them as a community was a clear choice.” 

The McMahons made the lead donation, and other members of the RE community soon followed suit. RE parents Alex and Danna Slusky and Alex Kleyner and Diana Ulis also have generously contributed. As this issue goes to press, $17 million has been raised. The goal is $30 million. The McMahons are confident others will be inspired to join the effort. 

“It really is a game changer from a competitive-advantage standpoint in our ability to attract, retain and recruit teachers,” Dueñas told RE parents from the podium of the Lewis Family Auditorium at an upper school event last fall. It helps “not only locally against our competition, but nationally, to be able to find, hire and convince the best faculty and teachers to come to Miami and teach at our school.” 
 
RE teachers: the heart and soul of Ransom Everglades

RE faculty members teach, coach, mentor, serve as advisors and lead clubs. They also help students with advanced research and special projects. Grace and fellow science faculty members Heather Marshall and Kristine Stump assisted two dozen physics students with abstracts for projects or research posters this past year that were accepted into a professional physics conference (the APS Global Physics Summit), which takes place in March in Anaheim, Calif. (The conference does not officially include high school students.)

Humanities chair Jen Nero and peers in the history and social sciences realm have worked with student entrepreneurs as they prepare projects for the annual Business Plan Challenge, and Bob DuBard and Paul Natland ’02 lead a wildly popular bridge building competition. Associate Head of School John A. King Jr. directs the Bowden fellows humanities research program and Holzman Center of Applied Ethics. 
 
Those are just a few highlights; there are countless examples of the dedication and excellence of RE faculty on both campuses. 

Recruiting and keeping faculty of such a high caliber require attention to detail even beyond the new endowment. School leaders have brainstormed about novel benefits for RE teachers including occasional faculty dinners; yoga, exercise and sailing classes; pickleball games; health and wellness events; and other opportunities. 

“Our teachers are the foundation of our school,” Rodriguez said. “We have worked to create a culture of care for our faculty, understanding their health and wellbeing, and making sure we provide them with other things that will boost their connection and relationships within the school.” 

Ransom Everglades teachers shared personal messages on giant cards for the McMahons and have been meeting about other ways to say thank you. Many were willing to share their gratitude and personal stories for this piece. Marie Saint Hilaire, a mathematics and computer science teacher who lives with her two children in Pembroke Pines, said she was “shocked” to learn the amount of the stipend and called it “a generous … and thoughtful recognition of the work we do as teachers.” Added Saint Hilaire: “As a single mom navigating the challenges of rising costs, [the] support means more than words can express. It is helping me manage rising expenses while continuing to provide for my family.” 

Kate Bloomfield, a history and social sciences teacher, felt anxiety about her future after her rent increased by 50 percent two years ago. “I feel like I can finally breathe,” she said. “It has been a tremendous challenge for me to make ends meet and stay in Miami … I feel an enormous amount of gratitude for this gift.” 

An English teacher and Middle School Dean of Community Engagement and Multicultural Affairs, Karina Buhler has used her stipend to pay off education costs – she is currently enrolled in a master’s program at Vanderbilt – as well as to defray ever-rising housing expenses. “This support has alleviated financial stress and enabled me to focus on my passion for teaching and supporting our incredible students,” she said.

O’Jhonte Armstrong ’17 joined RE as a full-time science teacher this past year. Noting that the cost of everything in Miami “seems to be exceeding the national average,” he said the endowment “has eased the burden and has brought many smiling faces to both campuses.” 

Miriann Meyeringh is one of them. After earning a law degree from the University of Miami, she worked in the legal field and nonprofit sector. She soon realized, however, that her passion was teaching. After eight years at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, Meyeringh felt privileged to join the RE faculty last summer as a history and social sciences teacher. Her husband, proud alumnus Roy Meyeringh ’97, and sister-in-law, Jessica Meyeringh White ’91, had raved about the quality of the school and the people connected to it.  

Now, she understands. 

“Everyone talks about teachers being heroes and how much they appreciate the work we do,” she said. “The COLA endowment puts into action the words we hear so often and makes us feel truly valued and appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. An ocean of thank yous.”

For information on cost-of-living-allowance giving opportunities, please contact Director of Advancement Vicki Carbonell Williamson '88 at 305 460 8826 or vwilliamson@ransomeverglades.org.