At Parent Night, I mentioned that the Board of Trustees and I had recently worked on a new, shorter term strategic plan that was aimed at focusing on the school’s key strategic goals for the next 18-24 months. Focused around the six areas of program, finance, diversity, marketing and advocacy, governance, and facilities, the Board approved the overall plan at its last meeting. Thus I wanted to make certain all parents were aware of its contents and rationale.
Typically we have created much more involved five to seven year comprehensive strategic plans. However, in the highly changeable economic climate in which we find ourselves, we felt a shorter term plan would allow us to be optimally nimble in order to meet the challenges of a period marked by significant enrollment, financial aid, endowment, and voluntary giving pressures. We intend to evaluate our progress -- and the goals themselves -- on an ongoing basis so that we can be both proactive and highly responsive to changing conditions.
Since the program and our curriculum touch our students on such a daily basis, this week I wanted to outline our goals in those areas. Here is what we intend to be working on relative to the school’s program:
- exploring the “21st Century Learning” movement in greater depth to determine if there are critical components we should implement;
- continuing to implement the recommendations of the technology task force, including a robust program of professional development for the faculty;
- exploring ways to increase the depth, rather than breadth, of the curriculum;
- fully developing, refining, and implementing a new faculty evaluation model;
- implementing a first phase of the new school-wide project, Helping Others, Helping Ourselves;
- considering more opportunities for project-based learning;
- continuing efforts to further develop the faculty’s skills with differentiated instruction;
- determining optimal staffing to preserve as much program as we deem essential during a period of declining enrollment;
- fully meeting the requirements of the AIMS 10 Year Evaluation, in advance of the 5 Year Report, due in 2011.
In the future I will cover the other five areas. In the meantime, the entire list of goals is posted on our website under the About Us section. I welcome your thoughts and comments as we look to the school’s future.