THE SCHOOL
Beth Webb Hart, Ashley Hall writer in residence, reads from her latest novel.
Perhaps the most crucial task for any school administration is to prepare for the future through the creation and execution of strategic and master plans. Ashley Hall’s new Master Plan and educational philosophy are unveiled in the next sections of this Perspectives. The planned, programmatic transformation of our classical curriculum, already bearing early fruit in today’s course of study, will continue to spiral outward, more closely integrating all areas and levels of study. This logical evolution has its roots extending back to the original school curriculum established by Miss McBee nearly a century ago. 13 Fall 2006 PERSPECTIVES
tion includes daily classes for Lower School split between gym, aquatics, and dance. Middle and Upper School PE focuses on developing lifetime physical fitness habits. The PE curriculum is augmented by intramural sports and nine interscholastic sports programs. Sixty-five percent of Ashley Hall Middle and Upper School students participate on interscholastic teams every year. The Wellness Program offers lectures, workshops, counseling and guidance on virtually every topic important to maturing girls and young women. In addition, the School has instituted a Dean of Students who oversees student activities. Administratively, the school has grown in order to oversee the operation of an increasingly complex institution and to meet the professional and educational needs of its faculty, staff and students. In the last 20 years the School gained the Admission and Advancement Offices, began financial aid programs, instituted teaching awards, an endowment for career development, and created student scholarships. A Dean of Faculty directs curriculum design and supervises faculty professional development. A full-time school nurse is now on staff with a dedicated infirmary and a Human Resources specialist oversees personnel requirements. All of this is indicative of a thriving school, literally and figuratively bursting at its seams with new students, programs and plans. Perhaps the most crucial task for any school administration is to prepare for the future through the creation and execution of strategic and master plans. Ashley Hall’s new Master Plan and educational philosophy are unveiled in the next sections of this Perspectives. The planned, programmatic transformation of our classical curriculum, already bearing early fruit in today’s course of study, will continue to spiral outward, more closely integrating all areas and levels of study. This logical evolution has its roots extending back to the original school curriculum established by Miss McBee nearly a century ago. As you view the new Master Plan and read about the goals behind it in the coming pages, you will find the School transformed in order to best serve its students well into the future. Yet, for all of the change, this is a vision that holds fast to those sacred values and spaces that define Ashley Hall in the hearts and minds of generations of proud women, and one its founder would recognize and embrace.
Planning for the
Second Century A
shley Hall’s Board of Trustees decided in the late eighties that it was important for the school to undertake a Master Plan to secure Ashley Hall’s future. When the addition to the Lower School was officially opened in 2005,Trustee Emeritus Hugh Lane, Jr. remarked that this was the last phase of Ashley Hall’s Master Plan developed in 1988. As we look to Ashley Hall’s Centennial in 2009 and prepare for this wonderful celebration, the Board of Trustees is once again looking to secure Ashley Hall’s future by undertaking a new Master Plan. This plan will enable Ashley Hall to adapt to a changing educational environment while meeting the programmatic needs of a classical education for the 21st century and beyond.