Dare to Dream: The Bear Creek School 2020

DARE TO DREAM:

T H E B E A R C R E E K SCHOOL 2 0 2 0

Our mission is to provide a high-quality, Christian liberal arts education in a nurturing environment that will enable each student to become the individual God intends.

This strategic plan affirms the mission and core values of The Bear Creek School while also daring to dream of a Christian liberal arts education in light of the contemporary world—a vision to develop students who are curious, humble, and intellectually prepared to make wise and creative decisions as they engage tomorrow.

Letter to the Community

Dear

MEMBERS OF THE BEAR CREEK COMMUNITY Within these pages you will find the Strategic Plan 2020 for The Bear Creek School. This document represents 18 months of coordination, planning, information gathering, discussion, and hard work among the Board of Trustees, faculty, administration, and staff. Additionally, it reflects an intentional 18-month communitywide process of meeting in small focus groups and committees, answering surveys, and conducting individual interviews in which we asked the entire Bear Creek community to envision the future of The Bear Creek School. The culmination of this process is this Strategic Plan 2020. This Plan affirms the mission and core values of The Bear Creek School and also challenges us to dream of a Christian liberal arts education in light of contemporary times with an increased desire for our students and graduates to impact the world with wisdom, compassion, and courage.

Affirm the Core:

Dare to Dream:

FOUNDATIONS OF STRATEGIC PLAN 2020

THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL 2020

-- We will remain a Christian institution which seeks to enable students to become the individuals God intends.

-- We will continue to provide a high-quality liberal arts education that prepares students to go out into the world with knowledge and understanding so they become wise, compassionate, and courageous individuals.

-- We will maintain our focus on small class sizes and provide an educational environment where each student is known, prepared, and encouraged to become the individual God intends.

This strategic plan intentionally furthers the vision of The Bear Creek School by strengthening student program and instruction in light of contemporary innovation, while maintaining the distinctive— students who are curious, humble, and intellectually prepared to make wise, thoughtful decisions as they serve and lead tomorrow. There are four main planks which compose this dream for The Bear Creek School in 2020.

IMAGINE the Greater Conversation We will deepen our classical core by integrating technology, math, and science enhancements into the liberal arts framework so students not only learn the “what” and the “how,” but also the “why” and the “so what.” Additional resources for the arts and languages will be allocated so students have more opportunities to become innovative and creative thinkers and bring the fullness of a liberal arts education to their leadership and life.

INNOVATE in Light of the Future We will create “centers of excellence,” especially in the areas of math, science, and technology by providing additional instructional resources and expanding academic programming and course offerings.

INVEST in People We will design division-specific communities and experiences in our new facility and reconfigured spaces where each student is encouraged to grow into the individual God intends. We will also continue working to make a Bear Creek education accessible and affordable.

INSPIRE through Leadership We will foster a culture which nurtures compassion in students by providing additional opportunities and resources so that students, faculty, and administration may serve and lead in the broader community. The Bear Creek School will also become a leader in the local and regional educational and professional community.

As you read through these pages, we hope you are encouraged to smile as you see a school that honors its heritage by maintaining its core mission, identity, and purpose and a school that intentionally considers how to improve what we do best as it seeks to develop the next generation of leaders.

Grace and peace,

Andrea J. Lairson Chair, Board of Trustees

Patrick Carruth President and Headmaster

Affirm the Core The goals and tactics of the strategic plan are built upon the mission, vision, values, and competencies of The Bear Creek School. They are the foundational and essential statements of the school and govern our strategic directions.

OUR MISSION: to provide a high-quality, Christian liberal arts education in a nurturing environment that will enable each student to become the individual God intends.

OUR CORE VALUES: faith, excellence, virtue, wisdom, compassion, courage, dignity and respect, integrity and individualization, graciousness and professionalism, vocation and teachability

OUR VISION: to be the premier Christian school in America, producing graduates of wisdom, compassion, and courage who use their individual gifts to bring truth, beauty, and goodness to the communities in which they live.

OUR CORE COMPETENCIES: teaching, serving, nurturing

OVERVIEW

STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS Imagine the Greater Conversation Innovate in Light of the Future Invest in People and the Future Inspire through Leadership

VALUE MISSION

VISION COMPETENCIES

Affirm the Core:

Core Values

FAITH We believe that faith supports knowledge, reason, inquiry, and analysis and that faith combined with reason produces wisdom.

EXCELLENCE We believe in pursuing superior standards of academic, artistic, and athletic excellence, enabling students to grow in maturity, to learn how to think, to succeed in higher education and in life, and to engage the world.

VIRTUE We believe in education designed to encourage individuals to live lives of truth, beauty, and goodness and to inspire others in the same direction.

DIGNITY AND RESPECT We believe that every human life is sacred and possesses intrinsic worth because we are created in the image of God; therefore, each individual is to be treated with dignity and respect.

INTEGRITY AND INDIVIDUALIZATION We seek to be a community of integrity and strive to honor students as individuals and to individualize their experience at The Bear Creek School.

Affirm the Core:

GRACIOUSNESS AND PROFESSIONALISM We seek a school culture which actively considers the needs of others before our own by being gracious and professional in all interactions.

VOCATION AND TEACHABILITY We believe God has given each individual a calling in life and seek to cultivate a sense of vocation and to remain teachable as a community.

WISDOM We seek to cultivate intellectual virtue in students so they develop the wisdom to live lives of integrity and influence.

COMPASSION We seek to foster in students a love and compassion for their neighbors and the greater community, demonstrated by word and deed.

COURAGE We seek to encourage students to be courageous and to lead by engaging the world with wisdom, compassion, and courage.

Core Values

THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL 2020

Why the Liberal Arts As the final days of summer passed away, my youngest daughter sat with her feet dangling in the pool on a 90 degree afternoon, dreaming, as she gazed into the water. Although small, her feet created ripples which cascaded rhythmically across the mirrored water. These ripples ran the length of the pool, echoing from end to end, returning and then departing again. Each surge created and compelled another. Each wave affected the entire pool. Sometimes in the busy flow of life we forget to dream and to realize that our lives ripple through and influence the lives of others. As people who embrace the reality of redemption, we should strive daily to imagine a world not as it is, but as it should be, and to create the currents of change which make that happen.

Our world is changing. Current industry experts, CEOs, politicians, and professors are expressing in articles and journals the need for leaders who are not only technically proficient, but creative and able to exercise sound judgment. Such a need will likely only increase in the future. At a time when each of us can electronically access assimilated facts and information quickly and easily, tomorrow’s leaders will need an education which teaches them to think both critically and creatively, analytically and artistically. This strategic plan envisions such an education.

The belief that a high-quality Christian liberal arts education is crucial to imagining the world as it should be and in preparing students to make that vision a reality has been at the core of The Bear Creek School from its beginnings. A Christian liberal arts education teaches students specific information, content, and skills, but it also prepares students how to think, and how to think wisely, regardless of the time in which they live or the specific circumstances they encounter.

Christian liberal arts is a paradox. It prepares students for a lifetime of vocation—for their calling—with specific information and skills. But it also prepares them with a worldview from which to discern and make wise and influential decisions—to dream and then to do—because it is rooted in the beginning and the end of knowledge. Like the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to the church at Colossae, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” In the end, a Christian liberal arts education creates tension; it inspires and humbles. It enables us to pursue dreams, to aspire toward greatness, and to nurture the human soul, while also reminding us we are creatures and not the Creator. It is a dangerous and beautiful legacy.

What if we imagined a greater conversation—a program which maintains both the core strength of a high-quality liberal arts education and is flexible enough to integrate enhanced programs in technology, math, and science which provide instruction and avenues for students and faculty to innovate and engage the contemporary world?

We at The Bear Creek School have been dreaming.

Will you join us in that pursuit?

What if we dared to dream of equipping students with a Christian worldview who were both artistic and analytical? What if we dared to dream of a new generation who understood what to think, how to think, and were equipped to create, influence, innovate, and engage the world with wisdom, compassion, and courage?

We dared to dream. And this strategic plan outlines the aspirations for The Bear Creek School through 2020.

In a 2008 Wall Street Journal article titled “Mad Max and the Meltdown,” Daniel Henninger posits that the inability or unwillingness of individuals to make wise decisions was at the heart of the financial crisis of that year.

Similarly, in 2010, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Peter Berkowitz summarized the value of a liberal arts education in preparing students with knowledge, but also with understanding and wisdom.

What really went missing through the subprime mortgage years were the three Rs: responsibility, restraint, and remorse. They are the ballast that stabilized two better known Rs from the world of free markets: risk and reward. Responsibility and restraint are moral sentiments. Remorse is a product of conscience. None of these grow on trees. Each must be learned, taught, passed down....

A proper education, culminating in a liberal education, gives science an honored place. It teaches students, among other things, the fundamentals of the scientific method and the contribution that science has made to human security, freedom, and prosperity.... At the same time, a liberal education brings into focus the limits of science, beginning with the impossibility of explaining the value of science and math in scientific and mathematical terms—to say nothing of science’s incapacity to account for the worth and dignity of the individual.

On the website Tech Crunch on March 21, 2011, Vivek Wadhwa from Duke University posted an article, “Engineering vs. Liberal Arts: Who’s Right—Bill or Steve?” Wadhwa made the following observation about the future of engineering and the liberal arts.

As an August 2014 Fast Company article by Elizabeth Segran about tech CEOs and their perspective on liberal arts education cites,

While the tech boom is partly responsible for the spike in students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math, many tech CEOs still believe Because I am a professor at the Pratt School of employees trained in the liberal arts add value to their Engineering at Duke University, and given all the companies....Other tech CEOs across the country agree positive things I say about U.S. engineering education, that liberal arts training—with its emphasis on creativity The Times assumed that I would side with Bill Gates; and critical thinking—is vital to the success of their that I would write a piece that endorsed his views. business....Training students for very specific tasks seems But, even though I believe that engineering is one of shortsighted when technology and business is evolving the most important professions, I have learned that at such a fast rate. It’s a horrible irony that at the very the liberal arts are equally important. It takes artists, moment the world has become more complex, we’re musicians, and psychologists working side by side with encouraging our young people to be highly specialized engineers to build products as elegant as the iPad. in one task. We are doing a disservice to young people by telling them that life is a straight path. The liberal arts are still relevant because they prepare students to be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances.

IMAGINE the Greater Conversation

STRATEGY: We will deepen our classical core by integrating technology, math, and science enhancements into the liberal arts framework so students not only learn the “what” and the “how,” but also the “why” and the “so what.” Additional resources for the arts and languages will also be allocated so students have more opportunities to become innovative and creative thinkers and bring the fullness of a liberal arts education to their leadership and life.

DIRECTION: -- Create math, science, technology, and humanities curriculum and instruction which re-unites the liberal arts and serves as the model for integrated education -- Elevate the quality of the fine and performing arts program by investing additional resources into faculty recruitment and professional development and increasing student offerings and opportunities -- Deepen the foreign language program by investing additional resources into faculty recruitment and professional development and increasing student offerings and opportunities -- Expand The Bear Creek School experience for current and future students -- Create exemplary summer and after-school programs -- Research and evaluate new opportunities for Bear Creek to remain forward-thinking as we shape the future of Bear Creek programs and services, including ideas such as: -- Post-Bear Creek educational model which takes advantage of the shifting pre-collegiate landscape -- Online learning opportunities

Invest in People and in the Future

Strategy: Offer an exceptional, accessible and relevant educational and professional community where each member is encouraged to grow into the individual God intends

INNOVATE in Light of the Future

STRATEGY: We will create additional “centers of excellence,� especially in the areas of technology, math, and science by providing additional instructional resources and expanding academic programming and course offerings.

DIRECTION: -- Create and implement a unique and distinctive math, science, and technology curriculum

STRATEGY: We will design division-specific communities and experiences in our new facility and reconfigured spaces where each student is encouraged to grow into the individual God intends. We will also continue working to make a Bear Creek education accessible and affordable.

DIRECTION: -- Continue to improve family affordability and accessibility -- Create funded scholarship programs -- Research additional revenue streams in addition to tuition -- Increase operational efficiency -- Improve the student school/life balance to enhance student experience and nurture a positive student culture that produces graduates of wisdom, compassion, and courage -- Balance a culture of success which also celebrates values development and the process of learning in all students -- Create and support professional internship program opportunities in the local community for our students -- Refine and reconsider the demands and expectations placed on students during the school day and analyze “smart homework� plans for all divisions -- Continue developing ways to celebrate students and build their communities (STEM, fine and performing arts, athletics, forensics, etc.)

-- Strengthen faculty job satisfaction, vocational perspective, and faculty culture -- Develop additional collaboration opportunities between and among divisions -- Encourage participation in professional development and community activities -- Creatively improve faculty salary and benefits -- Create ongoing opportunities for alumni to connect with one another and to take advantage of the networks and opportunities offered by the greater Bear Creek community -- Create opportunities for parents to support their students’ education and strengthen their own families through education and mutual support

INVEST in People

INSPIRE through Leadership

STRATEGY: We will foster a culture which nurtures compassion in students by providing additional opportunities and resources so that students, faculty, and administration may serve and lead in the broader community. The Bear Creek School will also become a leader in the local and regional educational and professional community.

DIRECTION: -- Deepen student faith life and experience while also creating opportunities for living faith out in the community -- Create a comprehensive Chapel plan for student learning and worship -- Refine Capstone senior experience to explore and engage students in dialogue about critical relevant issues related to Christianity and culture -- Refine community service and leadership programs to teach while creating avenues for students and alumni to show compassion by serving others -- Create community speaker series and social media content on relevant educational, parent, and student issues for churches and civic groups -- Offer professional development opportunities to schools locally, regionally, and nationally -- Encourage faculty and staff to serve in professional organizations that lead in education -- Engage professional organizations on the Eastside by encouraging staff to serve on committees and boards -- Develop a culture of philanthropy K-12 program to help students and the community learn more about philanthropy and generosity in all its forms

Invested in students. Intentional in outcome. tbcs.org