Orange County School May Strike It Rich Again

It has been a pretty lucrative second semester for St. Margaret’s Episcopal school.

In February, Broadcom’s former CEO gave the San Juan Capistrano school $10 million. Then on Wednesday, the school announced a $10-million challenge grant by a Dana Point businessman and his wife.

“I’ve been around private schools my whole life, and I’ve never been through anything like this,” said Marcus D. Hurlbut, headmaster at the 1,200-student school, which serves preschool children through 12th-graders.

With matching contributions, St. Margaret’s could receive a total benefit of $20 million from Kristina and Lawrence K. Dodge’s donation. The Dodges, who recently gave $20 million to Chapman University’s film and television program, pledged the money to build on St. Margaret’s modest endowment of $400,000.

Lawrence Dodge, 64, is founding chairman of the board, chief executive and majority stockholder of American Sterling Corp., an Irvine company involved in banking, insurance, real estate and technology. Kristina Dodge, 42, is co-founder of American Sterling Productions, a subsidiary.

“The most important part of any organization is the people,” said Kristina Dodge, whose family has been heavily involved in St. Margaret’s activities. “It’s very important [that] we use this money to take care of teachers’ salaries and expand diversity within the school.”

St. Margaret’s is using the $10-million donation from Broadcom’s Henry T. Nicholas III to build an athletic and science center. If the Dodges’ challenge grant ultimately leads to $20 million, the campus would be close to the average endowment of the several dozen independent schools of its size in the nation.

“I feel privileged to be around a school that has come so far, so fast,” Hurlbut said.

But school officials realize the Dodges will match only the money donated by the St. Margaret’s community.

“They’ve extended us a challenge. Now we have to rise to the occasion,” Hurlbut said. “It’s a first-class challenge to have.”

School officials say the windfall will have no effect on enrollment. “We’re not planning on getting bigger, just better,” Hurlbut said. “It’s all about refinement now.”

A large part of that refinement, he said, included making St. Margaret’s student body more diverse.

“We want to continue ... making St. Margaret’s accessible to bright students in the area, whether they can afford it or not,” Hurlbut said. “We have a significant Latino population in San Juan Capistrano. We feel we have an obligation to our community.”