After more than a year of strategic planning, we are excited to share our direction for the next five years. The planning process challenged trustees and administrators to think creatively about the world today’s preschoolers will face when they graduate.
The process also compelled us to dig deeper into our past and present to clarify where we now stand. Many of you—more than 100 alumni, parents, students, faculty, and other community members—also helped the school name its core strengths and purpose, those tenets which we should take with us as we move into the next several years.
Additionally, we engaged the consulting services of Independent School Management to help us marry our strategic and financial plans such that they are sustainable and take advantage of best practices. Thank you to everyone who participated. You have assisted the school in finding its way forward.
Our theme for the next five years is trailblazing.
At an institutional level, trailblazing means continuing the school’s long tradition of innovation while cultivating our natural and financial resources and our people. At a more personal and programmatic level, it means providing both the safety and challenge needed to support all learners as they take risks and find their own paths. You can expect to see more focus on leadership development, college counseling, faculty development, and parent education.
You may also see the school strengthening connections across grades within our student body, inviting more parents to participate in school events, forging new ties to the business community in our region, enlarging our campus, and helping students navigate beyond our walls.
Even here in the description, you will notice a strategy of inclusion to strengthen ties and promote access to ideas and educational resources in our community. The plan is an ambitious one that gives the Board of Trustees and administrators many avenues to choose from over the next five years; the school will not follow every offshoot of the plan in the foreseeable future.
What remains consistent and paramount across all of these options is our commitment to helping learners explore their fullest potentials by granting them access to a broader scope of resources. What we offer you here is a scenic outlook, a high point clear from the underbrush where you can see much of the path behind us as well as the road ahead.
This is our roadmap for the next five years, as well as an updated mission statement and guiding principle.
It reflects the hearts and minds of not only the board and administration, but faculty and staff, students, parents, and alumni as well. We would not have reached this point without you. Please enjoy this strategic direction. We look forward to seeing you on the trail ahead.
Diana Block
President, Board of Trustees
Lynn D. Casto
Head of School