High cost of Hershey School-related boards

Though contained in the IRS tax documents, a year-over-year comparison of overhead expenses at the Hershey School is misleading, McNamara said, because the school shifted personnel and other costs from the student programs budget to the administration budget.

The school also has spent millions more dollars on outside financial advisers, McNamara said.

After adjustments, McNamara estimated that administration spending rose only 9 percent over the period, McNamara said.

"About 70 percent of what we spend is on direct student services and that is with a very conservative interpretation of IRS guidelines."

The 28 percent of the budget devoted to administration, is higher than that of a sampling of other educational institutions.

At the exclusive Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, 21 percent of its budget was used for administration, according to its 990. The Lawrenceville School in the Princeton area, also a top boarding prep school, has administrative costs that are 15 percent of the budget.

Maybe the most comparable educational institution to the Hershey School is the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, which has an endowment of about $8 billion and serves thousands of native Hawaiians. Its administrative costs were 22.7 percent of the institution's budget.

Contact staff writer Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or bob.fernandez@phillynews.com.