As the 1980s drew to a close, the plummeting price of oil made recruitment difficult; oil wealth simply wasn’t there to pay the tuition of so many of its students. This was compounded by the recession dealt by 1991's Gulf War. The school as it stood then was unsustainable, so painful measures were taken: the upper school was closed. Despite cries from its small number of far-flung alumni, the move allowed the school to get on more solid financial footing by focusing on its local pre-K and kindergarten programs, even converting the girls dormitory into an extensive set of children's classrooms — including an indoor sandbox.