By Rebecca Nussbaum

The Board of Trustees set tuition for the 2011-2012 school year to $30,350, a 3.9 percent increase from this year, Chief Financial Officer Rob Levin said. 

Chairman of the Board of Trustees Christine Hazy (Steven ’00, Charissa ’03, Trenton ’05, Courtney ’11) sent a letter to parents on Feb. 4 opening registration for the fall and outlining the reasons for the tuition increase.

“The Board’s first duty is to maintain the excellence of the Harvard-Westlake student experience,” Hazy said. “Attracting and retaining excellent faculty is at the core of the School’s mission, and we must achieve this through competitive salary and benefit packages.”

She explained that over the past decades tuition growth has consistently surpassed inflation; however, since 2003 the Business Office has made significant progress by reducing the increase from nearly 10 percent to a now consistent 5 percent.