LEADING FENN FORWARD
2023-2033
A Strategic and Long-Range Plan for The Fenn School
For nearly 100 years, The Fenn School has educated talented, mission-appropriate boys of strong intellect and promise. Founded on Roger Fenn’s premise of using “progressive but proven” teaching methods, Fenn believes in educating the whole boy and encourages boys to act with honesty, respect, empathy, and courage. Our motto, Sua Sponte, challenges boys to accept responsibility for their own learning and lives and instills in them a sense of obligation to others.
Fenn has always operated from a position of strength, yet continues to evolve. Our new Strategic and Long-Range Plan, summarized here and charting our course for the fall of 2023 through the spring of 2033, identifies and embraces the important changes and areas for growth that will prepare us for the future. Scaffolded on the major accomplishments from The Fenn School Long-Range Plan for 2012-2022, it both acknowledges our strengths and leads us forward towards our centennial and beyond.
Key Plan Elements Include:
n Revitalized Mission and Philosophy statements that reflect the Fenn of the 21st century
n A strengthened commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
n Three strategic priorities:
• Enriching the student experience
• Investing in our talented faculty and staff
• Stewarding the future
A Revitalized Mission
Guided by our motto, Sua Sponte, and inspired by our core values of honesty, respect, empathy, and courage, The Fenn School challenges each boy to take responsibility for himself, for his own education, and for the well-being of others. Our boys thrive in a diverse community that celebrates our shared humanity and embraces difference. As part of an ever changing, interdependent world, Fenn empowers each boy to develop strong character and lead with integrity.
Our Philosophy
Our motto, Sua
Core Values
Shared values of honesty, respect, empathy, and courage provide the moral underpinnings of our school community and offer an ethical context for shaping the individual character of each boy. With distinctive elementary, middle, and early high school programs, Fenn provides:
• A nurturing community dedicated to relational teaching that gives boys meaningful opportunities to thrive and grow into lifelong learners. Teachers and boys build personal connections within a shared community that emphasizes relationships and a mutual learning environment.
• A supportive environment where boys learn selfreliance, confidence, and resilience. Boys are encouraged to develop personal responsibility and build self-advocacy skills to prepare them for their adolescent and secondary school years.
• An understanding of the cognitive, academic, emotional, social, leadership, and characterdevelopment needs of boys, along with a recognition of their differences as individuals and learners.
• A challenging program of substantial breadth and depth in academics, the arts, and athletics that,
through versatile teaching methods, teaches boys of strong intellectual ability, high academic potential, and varied learning styles.
• A stimulating curriculum that empowers boys to discover their talents, develop their intellectual curiosity, establish their essential knowledge, define their moral character, and build their leadership skills, preparing them for secondary school and beyond.
• An inclusive community that respects and celebrates the world’s human diversity, including differences in culture, race, religion, gender identity, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and sexual orientation.
• Opportunities for boys to invest their time, effort, and resources in service learning, sustainability, and philanthropic activities, inspiring them to pursue ethical and empathetic global citizenship.
Sponte, challenges boys to accept responsibility for their own learning and lives and instills in them a sense of obligation to others.
Enriching the Student Experience
Fenn boys are curious, bright, creative, and developing their independence. In the years ahead, we will continue to enrich the student experience to bring out the best in our boys. Grounded by our integral relational teaching approach—creating a culture in which personal connections between faculty and students are central to the educational experience—we will continue to help boys develop the self-confidence and skills they need to navigate a multicultural world. This plan will:
A. Build upon Fenn’s successful relational, interdisciplinary teaching philosophy
Fenn’s educational ethos is innovative, immersive, and interdisciplinary. Building on our commitment to excellence in learning, we will:
• Assess our academic, arts, and athletic programs to strengthen and build interdisciplinary, 21st-century skills and experiences
• Expand boys’ media literacy, technological literacy, digital citizenship, and design-thinking skills
• Deepen our commitment to social-emotional learning
• Develop more opportunities to build collaboration, critical-thinking, and communication skills
• Broaden the lower-school curriculum to include study and executive function skills
• Ensure Fenn’s ninth grade program remains a compelling and robust option for students
• Build sustainability education into our curriculum
B. Increase and nourish the diversity of our student body
In the years ahead, we will honor difference in all its forms by continuing to attract, enroll, support, and value boys from a range of backgrounds. We will:
• Continue to implement intentional admissions strategies that increase our enrollment of underrepresented students of color
• Bolster Fenn’s financial aid and recruitment strategies to better attract and enroll boys with limited financial means and from underrepresented communities
• Explore our course offerings and programming to maximize Fenn’s accessibility
• Communicate Fenn’s DEI values and goals across all constituencies to ensure campus-wide commitment
• Evaluate our on-campus social-emotional support services to ensure that all students are well served
C. Enrich the campus experience
The Fenn campus provides boys with idyllic spaces to challenge their minds, strengthen their bodies, hone their teamwork skills, and develop their independence. We must continue to invest in our facilities to provide the best possible campus experience for our boys. In the next 10 years, we will:
• Replace the 1954 gymnasium with a contemporary athletic facility
• Plan the development of North Campus to create dedicated spaces for baseball, tennis, and other sports
• Renovate the School House and arts classrooms
• Explore the creation of a playground
• Adopt and implement our Sustainability Master Plan
Curious. Bright. Creative.
A STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Investing in Our Talented Faculty & Staff
Fenn’s faculty and staff are the heart of our school. They bring passion, knowledge, and respect to everything they do, and they are experienced in working with boys in the Fenn age group. With their commitment to the Fenn relational teaching ethos, our teachers embrace their connections to students; similarly, our staff love working with boys and supporting the school. Over the next decade, we will:
B. Strengthen Fenn’s professional teaching and advising pedagogy to foster excellence and enhance continuity in the student experience
Fenn’s excellence in teaching stems from our educators’ commitment to their subject areas, their abiding relationships with their students, and Fenn’s pedagogical standards of excellence for teaching boys this age. To continue to cultivate the attributes of the ideal Fenn teacher, we will:
• Utilize standards of excellence in teaching
• Deepen collaboration within and across grade levels and divisions to ensure consistency and continuity
• Enhance professional development opportunities that strengthen best practices
C. Increase and nourish the diversity of faculty and staff
A. Encourage the passion and rigor of teaching boys within a close-knit faculty/staff community
Fenn’s faculty and staff are dedicated to their jobs. To continue to foster a caring work ethos, we will:
• Analyze and revise workloads for faculty and staff, including the FTE (full-time equivalent) value of teaching, advising, coaching, and other duties
• Develop supports that help employees mitigate stress and embrace the rigor of working at Fenn
• Expand human resources personnel to better recruit, retain, and support faculty and staff
Our faculty and staff bring diverse backgrounds, cultures, and experiences to their jobs; this diversity deepens our boys’ understanding of the world and helps them recognize themselves in the adults at Fenn. To honor difference and enhance Fenn’s commitment to an inclusive environment, we will:
• Attract, hire, and retain more underrepresented people of color
• Grow our inclusive faculty and staff culture to ensure all members feel welcome and valued
• Enhance our commitment to offering competitive salaries and benefits to increase diversity
• Offer professional development around equity and inclusion to foster a sense of belonging for all
Passionate. Collaborative. Engaged. A STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Stewarding the Future
Fenn has always operated from a position of strength: Its fiscal responsibility, prudent stewardship of the endowment, dedicated donor base, and beautiful campus have provided a robust platform on which to learn and grow. In the years ahead, we will build upon this foundation to meet the evolving needs and demographics of our community while preserving our campus and earth. To steward the future, we will:
A. Build financial security through sound financial management, careful preservation, and intentional fundraising
With a sustainable enrollment model, strategic financial planning, significant endowment, and intentional fundraising, Fenn has always operated with a balanced budget and successfully navigated market downturns. In the next decade, we will:
• Maintain a balanced and sustainable operating budget
• Prioritize a reliable, repeatable enrollment model
• Manage tuition increases
• Increase need-based aid
• Maintain prudent management of our investments
• Bolster fundraising to significantly grow the endowment and fund new initiatives
• Strengthen non-tuition-based income streams
B. Nurture and cultivate relationships across all Fenn constituents
Fenn is a community—not only of current students, parents, teachers, and staff, but also alumni, parents of alumni, board members, prospective families, and more. Over the next decade, we must cultivate and nourish these relationships. We will:
• Develop comprehensive marketing strategies that strengthen outreach and communication with external audiences
• Maintain past trustee involvement and prioritize recruitment of new board members
• Enhance the experiences of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Visitors
• Deepen Fenn’s giving pipeline and develop major and planned giving opportunities to capitalize on the loyalty of the Fenn community
C. Implement Fenn’s Sustainability Master Plan
Fenn has always been dedicated to preserving its bucolic campus. Today, our commitment to the environment must go beyond our grounds; we must be more mindful of how our choices on campus impact our world. Fenn’s Sustainability Master Plan prioritizes stewardship of the environment and instills in our community an environmentally conscious ethos. To implement this plan, we will:
• Prioritize efficient, sustainable choices when upgrading and building facilities and conducting systems maintenance and improvements
• Assess ways to conserve materials, reduce waste, and capture cost savings
• Develop strategies to help faculty, staff, and students execute the Sustainability Master Plan
Strong. Secure. Sustainable. A STRATEGIC PRIORITY
STRATEGIC AND LONG-RANGE PLAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Hilary Steinert, SLRP Chair
Taragh Mulvany ’87, Board of Trustees Chair
SUBCOMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
Mission, Core Values, School Philosophy
Derek Boonisar, Head of School
Carol Moriarty, Trustee
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Simone Hutchings, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Tara Edelman, Former Trustee
Zack Gund, Trustee
Program
John Sharon, Former Assistant Head of School for the Academic Program*
Andrea Darling, Trustee
*Dave Irwin, Head of Upper School, and Kate Wade, Head of Middle School, replaced John Sharon following his departure from Fenn in June 2022.
People
Nat Carr ’97, Assistant Head of School, Head of Lower School
Melissa McCray, Trustee
Resources
David Platt, Associate Head of School for Finance and Operations
Neville McCaghren, Trustee
CONSULTANTS
Jim Kitendaugh, Former Trustee and Board Chair
Leslie Goldberg, Writer
