Burke's Strategic Plan: 2022-2027

A Five-Year

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

Experience • Connection • Growth

D

ear Members of the Burke’s Community,

Letter from the Head of School and Board President

It is an exciting time to be at Burke’s. After hundreds of community interviews, hours of committee work, extensive stakeholder input, and navigating two pandemic years we are proud to present our five-year Strategic Plan. The Strategic Planning Committee membership was deliberately composed of faculty, staff, trustees, parents, and alumnae to encompass a wide range of perspectives and experiences. The plan has been designed to reflect the values, ideas, and dreams of Burke’s broad community and will serve as our road map for the months and years ahead. Far from a collection of words, each strategic priority is a bold commitment to our mission to educate, encourage and empower our students.

Our three key strategic goals are depicted as branches of a tree — fitting as we are the Burke’s Trees — green and gold with deep roots over one hundred years old and branches reaching skyward into an ever-changing world. These strategic goals are nourished by Burke’s core values of joy, rigor, inclusivity, resilience, sustainability, wellness and belonging. These root values were identified early in the planning process and became more important as we watched the pandemic and social justice movements sweep the globe, and the murder of George Floyd rock the United States, changing the nation’s perspective on systemic racism. The final Strategic Plan reflects many of the lessons learned since 2020 and its priorities will be brought to life by new and impactful initiatives.

Our last Strategic Plan served as the launch point for new classroom curriculum and programs, our successful Transportation Program, Burke’s gender inclusion policy, increased endowment and financial assistance, and much more. We are ready in this moment to push forward with new energy and high hopes for our students and Burke’s as an institution. With gratitude for the entire Burke’s community, we invite you to read our Strategic Plan and join us in the path forward.

Michele Williams Head of School

Scott Jordon President, Board of Trustees

A Five-Year

Strategic Plan

What we believe about teaching and learning.

Mission Statement Burke’s mission is to educate, encourage, and empower girls. Our school combines academic excellence with an appreciation for childhood so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to the community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.

2022-2027

Through our community-wide strategic exploration in 2018-20, the school emerged with key insights about the future of teaching and learning at Burke’s. Many of these insights are not new but are connected to our mission and values and were reinforced through the process. ● Academic challenge and joyful learning are deeply intertwined. ● E xcellent teachers who inspire a love of learning are essential to our vision. ● A sense of belonging for all members of our community is vital to our students’ success. ● S tudents today and in the future must be adaptable, capable of learning within a classroom and out in the field, digitally and face to face. ● D iverse, inclusive and just communities offer more vibrant, intellectually stimulating, and enriching experiences for both students and adults. ● Working on real-world problems and contributing to our communities in authentic ways gives students purpose and meaning. ● H ealthy, mindful, and balanced students with a strong sense of purpose become resilient, confident, and successful adults. ● O ur campus and location in San Francisco is a daily reminder of our connection to nature and our responsibility as environmental stewards.

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Our Goals EXPERIENCE:

Our goals are outlined in the branches of this tree — rooted through our mission and values, and interconnected with each other.

CONNECTION:

GROWTH:

Ready Today, for Tomorrow

Caring for our Community and Planet

For the Community and Institution

Provide academic preparation that values joy as much as academic rigor and is distinguished by a focus on real-world problems, purpose, life skills, and habits of mind.

Develop graduates who embrace differences and belonging, work to sustain their natural environment, and inspire their communities to join them as change-makers.

Ensure financial sustainability for the institution, increase affordability for families, and provide meaningful compensation for faculty and staff.

Sustainability

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A Five-Year

An Inclusive Community COMMUNITY

ENDEAVOUR

Faculty, Staff & Parents

Representing Trustees, parents, alumnae, faculty, staff and administrators

Burke’s community and external experts

2022-2027

THINK TANKS

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

INTERVIEWS

Strategic Plan

BURKE’S EXPERIENCE SURVEYS Feedback collected from parents, faculty, and staff

VISION DAY Students, parents, grandparents, alumnae, and faculty came together for a day of collaboration and design thinking.

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EXPER IENC E Ready Today, for Tomorrow

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A Five-Year

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

Designing Joyful, Rigorous Learning Experiences in the Classroom and Beyond Burke’s Campus Both on the campus, in our neighborhood, and throughout the city of San Francisco, students of all ages will learn best by exploring how they can solve real-world problems through service learning and social justice.

BURKE’S will: ● Partner with local institutions, organizations, and companies to develop hands-on projects solving meaningful real-world problems. ● Nurture student leaders to create positive and enduring change, through the development of curriculum and experiences that contextualize service activities and justice issues in broader historical, cultural, economic, and political systems.

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Supporting Resilient, Healthy and, Balanced Students Our students’ ability to achieve academic success and manage life’s inevitable challenges requires the ability to approach their future with confidence, resilience, and a set of tools that will help them achieve lifelong healthy habits.

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BURKE’S will: ● Establish a Center for Wellness (physical or programmatic space), centralizing and elevating critical wellness programs that will help students thrive today and in the future ­— social-emotional learning, outdoor education, student leadership, and digital citizenship. ● Challenge each student to build their authentic personal and academic identity as a foundation for their life beyond Burke’s. ● Examine its model of assessment and evaluation to be more reflective of Burke’s pedagogy, including social-emotional learning and other core competencies that are central to academic excellence.

A Five-Year

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

CONNE C TION Caring for our Community and Planet

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Actively Foster a Diverse and Equitable Community of Belonging We say that there are 400 ways to be a Burke’s student and family. Regardless of how a family comes to Burke’s, where they live, how much they contribute financially, or how often they can make it to campus, every family member is an equal and valued part of the Burke’s community.

BURKE’S will: ● Increase diversity in student, faculty, and staff populations to better resemble the demographics of the Bay Area by examining and refining hiring practices and admissions recruiting. ●E ngage all members of the community, adults and students alike, through a curriculum focused on antiracism, while teaching all members of the community to engage with curiosity and consider information from a variety of perspectives. ●E xpand our dynamic transportation network to remove barriers and connect our campus to a greater geographic area.

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A Five-Year

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

Creating Environmental Scientists and Stewards Care for the community also means working together to preserve our natural environment.

The location of Burke’s at the edge of the city, overlooking the ocean, Golden Gate Bridge and Lands’ End, reminds our community every day of our connection to the planet.

BURKE’S will: ● Integrate environmental sustainability as a core component of the academic curriculum, as well as a central part of service learning, empowering students to be both environmental scientists and stewards throughout their journey at Burke’s. ●P rioritize institutional practices that support environmental sustainability.

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GROW TH

For the Community and Institution

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A Five-Year

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

FOR STUDENTS AND FAMILIES:

Economic Empowerment through Endowment Burke’s recognizes the economic challenges of the Bay Area and will seek solutions to meet these challenges to reflect the socio-economic diversity that makes up the greater Bay Area.

BURKE’S will: ● Refine financial assistance marketing and make tools available on the website to allow families to better imagine themselves at Burke’s. ● Increase the financial assistance budget permanently through expanded endowment or other financial sources with the goal of providing a means for accepted families to be able to afford Burke’s.

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FOR FACULTY AND STAFF:

Retaining and Attracting Talent Exceptional teachers and staff are essential to Burke’s continuing its legacy of educational leadership for another 100 years.

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FOR THE INSTITUTION:

Economic Empowerment through Endowment

BURKE’S will:

Endowment supports Burke’s goals of having a wide range of families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and attracting and retaining talented faculty and staff through competitive salaries and benefits.

●D istinguish itself as a destination workplace where diverse staff and faculty can thrive economically despite the financial challenges of the Bay Area.

BURKE’S will:

●P ursue benefits outside of direct compensation to facilitate faculty and staff engagement, retention, and recruiting.

●B uild a culture of endowment philanthropy by defining a thoughtful and strategic goal for its endowment.

●R edesign the hiring process to include a broader range of strategies for attracting, hiring, and retaining culturally competent educators.

A Five-Year

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

We would like to thank the following volunteers for their important roles in producing a five-year action plan for Burke’s: 2021-22 OFFICERS

2021-22 TRUSTEES

Scott Jordon, President Leith Barry, Vice President Linda Chong, Treasurer Victoria Pradhan, Secretary Johanna Calabria, At-Large Jonathan Feldman, At-Large Rachel Skiffer ’88, At-Large

Clara Abecassis ’92 Stephanie Jones Bailey Rahul Chandarana Roberto D’Erizans Lisa Farmer Kimberly Fullerton ’77e Benicia Gantner ’84 Max Boyer Glynn ’94 James Gutierrez Dawn Rosenberg Jha Melissa Ma Star Plaxton-Moore Muhammad Nadhiri Ezra Perlman Tod Sacerdoti Gabe Santos Catarina Schwab Yvo Smit Stephanie Withers

EX-OFFICIO Michele Williams, Head of School Abraham Martinez, P.A. President Lisa Harada ’03, President of the Alumnae Board

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE & COLLABORATORS Abhijit Dubey Co-Chair, 2018-20 Gabrielle Kivitz ’89 Co-Chair, 2018-21 Kimberly Fullerton ’77e Co-Chair, 2020-21 Star Plaxton-Moore Chair, 2021-22

Emily Banks Leith Barry Amit Daryanani Jonathan Feldman Heidi Fung Benicia Gantner ’84 Damian Gates Max Boyer Glynn ’94

Dawn Rosenberg Jha Renita LiVolsi Natalie Mast Mike Matthews Yukiko Meadows Alice Moore Patricia Neville Victoria Pradhan Tina Robertson Quise Rodriguez Diana Schneider Selena Shadle Kelly Shea Sheena Tart-Zelvin Ian Van Wert George Vidalakis Michele Williams Fran Yang FACILITATOR: Carla Silver

KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL 7070 CALIFORNIA STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121 BURKES.ORG