Strategic Planning Update – October

With one eye on recent progress and the other fixed boldly to the future, MICDS has embarked on a process to create a Strategic Plan for the next five to seven years that will provide direction as the School strives to fulfill its Mission and build upon its high level of successes. Careful planning strengthens and shapes our School’s future, allowing MICDS to capitalize on its full potential, to articulate a clear sense of purpose, and to define the directions toward which we will head.

Strategic Planning, which began last spring with a Board of Trustees retreat, is grounded in the mission and core values that have long defined our School. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee, led by Board Chair Julia Jansen Lilly ’86 and Head of School Lisa Lyle includes Vice Chair Bill Polk ’74, and former Board Chairs Henry B. Pflager III ’80 and Stuart Campbell. This group held a series of meetings throughout the spring and summer to identify priorities that are critically important to the future of the School based on data and research including the ISACS Visiting Team Report (November 2013), Parent Surveys, Portrait of a Graduate Exercises and more.

Throughout the process input from all School constituencies has pointed to the following key emerging priorities:

  1. Faculty Excellence, Spectacular Programming and Pedagogy – Cultivating a World-Class Faculty and Programs that Prepare Students to Make Their Mark on the World
  2. Transformative Student Experience – Creating a Student-Centered Experience: Educating the Whole Child for a Life of Purpose and Service Individual Student Growth
  3. Vibrant School Future – Ensuring a Wise and Disciplined Stewardship of Our School’s Resources, Including Financial, Physical and Human

In the fall of 2014 Priority Committees were established to begin work on the three emerging themes. The working groups, led by Board of Trustee Members Mark Proctor, Ed Macias and Debbie Rush are comprised of parents, students, alumni, faculty, staff and Board of Trustees and have set out to affirm the priorities, establish specific and measurable objectives and strategies designed to realize the Plan’s overarching goals.

In October the School held its first-ever Jam session, an online, moderated, one-day conversation designed to hear from a variety of people with a stake in the future of MICDS. More than 350 people registered for this community-wide conversation and the nearly 750 posts provided the school with great insights and affirmation of the three emerging priorities.

Knowledge was shared, ideas were discussed, artifacts and resources were contributed and everyone learned from the exchange. The richness of this exchange came from discovering the key issue patterns that emerged from the analysis of the conversational data.

The ultimate goal of this strategic plan is to provide a roadmap for MICDS to realize even greater achievement and its full potential as a truly world-class independent school community. We are excited by our initial progress and will continue to share updates in the months ahead!