So I ran some numbers regarding the school, using the expenditure rules from Covenants.
Students that reside at the school 2 seasons per year will need to be charge extra for room and board, including the impact of servants and teamsters. That would be about 0.4 pound per student per season. That means that the actual cost for a year's tuition to the school would be 1 pound -- 0.2 for the teaching and 0.8 for room and board. I based myself on what it would cost to have only students (dependents without wage) living at a covenant.
Now, based on that, here's the summary of the school expenditures:
Inhabitants
[list][*]Christophoros (a companion): 3 points of inhabitants + 1 point to consider his above-average living conditions
1 Senior teacher (treated as book specialist): 2 points of inhabitants
3 Junior teachers (treated as regular specialists): 6 points of inhabitants
45 Students (dependents without wage), present only half the year: 22.5 points of inhabitants
7 Servants: 7 points of inhabitants
4 Teamsters: 4 points of inhabitants
Total 45.5 points
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[]Expenditures
Buildings: 4.6 pounds
Consumables: 9.2 pounds
Provisions: 23 pounds
Wages: 4.6 pounds
Writing materials: 1 pound
Pound of Enumarus: 1 pound
Total 43.4 pounds
[/:m]
[]Income
Students' tuition (0.2 pound per student): 9 pounds
Students' room and board (0.8 pound per student): 36 pounds
Total 45 pounds
[/*:m][/list:u]
So, with 45 students, the school would register a slight profit of 1.6 pound per year, which would slowly pay for the books being advanced by the covenant. As the number of students rises, the school would be able to add more teachers and/or assistants as well as run a slightly larger profit.
Is that really possible? Considering that the covenant is located on top of the Parachaikon mountain, I figured it would take about 3 hours to get there from Patras. And 3 more hours to get back. In all seasons and weather. For children starting as young as age 8.
That would certainly have a negative impact on those students' results.
Not everyone will live in Patras itself, and it also depends on whether they have carts or riding animals they can take to school. So someone who lives in an estate to the east of Patras with a pony to ride would have little difficulty. 10 however is an absolute limit, not a ratio.
Fair enough, I can live with that. It has minimal impact on the numbers, perhaps only 1 pound overall because of economies of scale for servants and teamsters.
Each resident student that gets added would increase school net income by 0.2 pound, until we hit the limit on the number of students that the teachers can handle. Even if each teacher can only handle 15 students, the school has a capacity to handle 60 students, even before Christophoros is taken into account. Although he would concentrate on teaching the teachers themselves, he would also oversee the most advanced students -- but only for the equivalent of 1 season per year. So my estimate is that the school can handle up to 70 students before needing additional teachers.
Spring: Manage/teach at the school; participate in the election of the covenant representative but loses (6 xp for a story) -- 2 xp in Teaching, 2 xp in Folk Ken and 2 xp in Leadership