Announcing Collegiate's Strategic Planning Process

Dear Members of the Collegiate Community,  

 

The end of the calendar year traditionally is a time both to look back with reflection and gratitude, and ahead with excitement and purpose.

 

 

It has only been a few months since our Head Penny Evins and her family – Sam, June Friend, Sam IV and Ansley the Cougar Pup – arrived at Collegiate. In that short time, Penny has truly immersed herself in all things Collegiate, learning about our School and community and leading our remarkable faculty and staff with energy and enthusiasm for all things green and gold.  

 

We can all feel the joy around campus and excitement across our community. It’s truly an especially exciting time to be a Cougar.  

 

What’s Ahead – A New Strategic Plan 

 

Our School is in a strong position, yet we must not rest upon our laurels. We always need to look to the future and plan for it. As you probably know, Collegiate is directed by a strategic plan that ensures our School remains relevant and vital for families today and for future generations. Our most recent strategic plan, Focused Forward, spans 2016-2019. That plan, which is posted on the School’s website, can also be found here. 

 

The Board of Trustees has made the creation of our next strategic plan a priority for this school year. We intend to make the strategic planning process transparent and inclusive, with the goal of creating a strategic pathway for the School that our entire Community informs, appreciates and supports.

 

As the Board launches the strategic planning process, we want to share how we are organizing this effort, and how everyone in our community will have multiple opportunities to be involved.  

 

 

The Board has established a Strategic Planning Committee, comprised of Board members, senior administrative team members, parents and our Head of School. Committee members are listed at the end of this letter. Special thanks to Trustees Carter Reid and Peter Mahoney for chairing this Committee.

 

The Strategic Planning Committee will lead us through a thoughtful and comprehensive planning process this year that starts with appreciating our School’s Mission and Values, as well as our core programs and the work done in developing and delivering those programs. Building on this, the Committee will mine ideas from many sources, including our ongoing performance benchmarking research with peer independent schools across the country and insights from our recent Head of School search process. Our view of the future landscape also will be informed by the recent work of our faculty’s Futures Group in studying other leading school programs, as well as research on emerging trends from the National Association of Independent Schools.

 

 

The most important source of input for our entire strategic planning process is you, the members of the Collegiate community, including parents, faculty and staff, alumni, parents of alumni and students. We will gather direct input through surveys and facilitated group listening sessions that will be scheduled over the next few months. Please watch for more information on this topic early next year.

 

Our strategic planning process will culminate with a community-based aspirational vision, concrete goals and key strategic focus areas to guide Collegiate for the next few years and beyond. The final version of the plan will be shared with the School community and posted on the School’s website.