Burke's Strategic Plan

Our COMMUNITY. Our CAMPUS. Our COMMITMENT.

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“Proceeding from a POSITION OF STRENGTH, this strategic plan is designed to fulfill BURKE’S PROMISE to continue its leadership as a UNIQUE & INFLUENTIAL model for the education of girls in the 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y .”  MICHELE WILLIAMS, HEAD OF SCHOOL

Our Mission

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 community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.

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Dear Members of the Burke’s Community: The Katherine Delmar Burke School Board of Trustees is pleased to present our four-year, strategic plan. This plan will serve as a road map for guidance over the coming years as Burke’s strives to fulfill its mission and provide the best education possible to girls in grades kindergarten through eighth grade.

letter from the Head of School and the President of the Board of Tr u s t e e s

Our community . Our campus . Our commitment . is Burke’s first comprehensive strategic plan since 2007. Its recommendations are informed by broad community input, professional consultation and careful research.

The plan works in synergy with Michele’s vision for Burke’s: ensuring that innovative teachers, who truly know their students, help to provide a joyful learning environment.

The Strategic Planning Committee officially began work on this planning process in the fall of 2013; however, the underlying principles of the plan have been established for over a century at Burke’s: the education of the complete girl. The importance of educating the complete child is echoed in the early words of Katherine Delmar Burke, founder of our school, who wrote to her students in 1926: “Remember always that books and hours of schooling are not all of education; intellect and character build upon learning and give the grace and refinement of the truly educated women.”

We are deeply grateful to all those whose time, hard work, passion, and dedication to Burke’s shaped this plan for the future. Faculty members, administrators, trustees, parents, and alumnae served collectively on the steering committee and task forces that developed the plan. Our approach to planning was unique and the result is uniquely Burke’s.

Our past has included many great days. Our future will include many more.

As we navigate our way into that future, we do so with a well-conceived road map. With gratitude for the entire Burke’s community, we present our Strategic Plan.

Sincerely,

Evan Marwell President of the Board of Trustees

Michele Williams Head of School

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solves problems, takes risks and learns from both setbacks and success.

A strategic plan is a living document, meant to provide guidance, but also flexibility if necessary. Strategic planning is also ongoing and this is just our first of many steps. Burke’s Strategic Plan is built on three interconnected Strategic Goals, supported by five Strategic Priorities, which, executed together, will achieve our vision for Burke’s. the

Strategic Plan An Overview

The Plan reflects many months of thinking and discussion across the school community at all levels. In developing the plan, we engaged important stakeholders who care deeply about Burke’s and its continued excellence, including faculty, staff, parents, alumnae, students and former and current trustees.

We began by developing surveys that invited all stakeholders to share their thoughts about the current strengths of the school, the perceived challenges and limitations to be faced over the next few years, and the ideas and advice that they might offer to strengthen an already thriving institution. More than 400 community members responded to our surveys, contributing candid, passionate, and well-reasoned analyses and suggestions. The Strategic Planning Committee, led by trustees, studied the responses in detail and used them to identify the areas of focus listed in the Strategic Plan.

Following this initial part of the plan’s “Discovery” phase, Burke’s hired educational consultant Carla Silver, Executive Director of Leadership + Design, to help orchestrate a wide range of interviews and meetings that were instrumental in helping the Strategic Planning Committee better understand how to build upon the existing strengths of our historic institution.

In keeping with Burke’s 106-year heritage, we are committed to providing the best in education for girls and to enhancing our rich traditions to make them relevant for each generation. Our core values focus our energy, guide resource allocation decisions and are the anchor for the following strategic plan.

With clear goals, metrics, and initiatives, the plan describes our priorities and will be a strong foundation as we reflect on our progress and move forward together. Regular review of our accomplishments and challenges will be included in our ongoing work to achieve continuous improvement.

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Our Community.

STRATEGIC GOAL #1 Burke’s will build an innovative and transformative

educational environment so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to community and fulfill their potential.

Supporting Our Curriculum & Pedagogy

Today’s students stand to inherit and shape a world transformed by exponential change. If a 20th-century world felt finite and knowable, the 21st-century world is a universe of infinitely expanding information, connection, challenges and unknowns. Twenty-first-century education must address a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new challenges. We want Burke’s to model the type of nimble curriculum and flexible pedagogy that will best equip our girls with skills that will enable them to thrive in an uncertain future. From private moments of reading pleasure to public productions such as the eighth grade play, Burke’s students are encouraged to pursue creative expression, problem solving, project-based learning, collaborative teamwork, independent critical thinking and the honing of both oral and written communication skills.

B urke ’ s will articulate and review, through curriculum design mapping and scope and sequence documentation, an evolving curriculum best suited for the 21st Century and ensure that students have a strong knowledge base and habits of mind in both STEM disciplines and the Liberal Arts.

B urke ’ s will provide more differentiated instruction to students at a broader range of academic levels through the expansion of teachers’ instructional methods and assessment of cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

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expand integration of disciplines in project-based learning.

Supporting the Girl as She Finds Her Place in a Diverse & Ever-changing World

Self-exploration is central to the growth of the complete girl, her relationships with others, and her ability to promote equity. Various social identities shape attitudes, behaviors, worldviews, and experiences.

When students participate in diverse learning environments, they begin to understand how their own and others’ identities affect their lives and their interactions with each other.

B urke ’ s will enhance social/emotional, multicultural and service learning curriculums that celebrate and develop each girl’s sense of self and place in the Burke’s community and in the world beyond the gates of the school.

B urke ’ s will create a diversity task force to research and develop a threepronged approach of recruitment, enrollment, and inclusion to ensure that the school continues to reflect the rich diversity of the Bay Area in the student body, faculty and staff.

B urke ’ s will create partnerships with academic, non-profit and corporate organizations and individuals to further our goal of imbuing global awareness, a sense of citizenship and leadership skills in our girls to help them thrive and succeed in the 21st Century.

Supporting Our Faculty’s Professional Development

It is critical for faculty and staff to have ongoing and regular opportunities to learn from each other and from practitioners and experts outside of Burke’s. Professional development keeps faculty and staff up-to-date regarding new research about how children learn, emerging technology tools for the classroom, new curriculum resources, and more. The best professional development is ongoing, experiential, collaborative, and connected to and derived from working with students and understanding their culture.

B urke ’ s will create a standard-setting, both locally and nationally, professional development program that inspires and nurtures innovation and collaboration.

B urke ’ s will further develop and fine-tune Burke’s Professional Growth System and use of Folio for faculty development and evaluation.

B urke ’ s will share our innovations and best practices with other educators and learn from exemplary programs by visiting and exchanging information with other educational institutions.

Our Campus.

STRATEGIC GOAL #2 Burke’s will make physical improvements to create

and support 21st century teaching spaces that allow for project-based learning, collaboration and flexibility.

Campus Renovations

Burke’s is fortunate as an urban institution to have a selfcontained, four-acre campus that houses classrooms, offices, and arts and athletics facilities. Our campus also provides significant outdoor space and offers many opportunities for students, faculty, and parents to gather as a school community.

Nonetheless, the goals of this strategic plan require spaces that are multi-purpose, flexible and inspiring. Twenty-first-century learning requires space that is as adaptive to our curriculum and our faculty.

B urke ’ s will examine, expand, and improve its facilities in order to meet current and future needs, including the potential renovation of the Lower School and Lunchroom spaces.

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Our Commitment.

STRATEGIC GOAL #3 Burke’s will develop a financial model that enhances

access to the School for the broadest pool of qualified applicants; reduces dependence on tuition; attracts and retains the best faculty and staff; and adequately funds the School’s programs and the goals of this strategic plan.

Growing the Endowment

Burke’s has enjoyed over a century of financial stability and responsible planning in support of its program. The school maintains central principles such as the importance of a balanced budget while it responds to contemporary financial realities and the needs of its families and staff. A strong endowment is critical to maintaining a healthy and independent institution. It allows a school to hold tuition increases to moderate rates, to be innovative and adaptive to changing curricular and programmatic needs, and to increase financial assistance. Without adequate, wisely invested endowment funds, an institution is forever at the mercy of conditions beyond its control, such as economic, philanthropic and demographic fluctuations, and unforeseen catastrophic events. A strong endowment provides the foundation for every enduring institution and helps a school fulfill its aspirations to excellence.

Income from the endowment allows Burke’s to maintain its financial equilibrium while reducing its dependence on tuition income and providing a margin of security against uncertainty.

B urke ’ s will increase endowment significantly through a community-wide capital campaign effort.

B urke ’ s will grow the endowment annually and further foster a culture of philanthropy by enabling graduating class families and alumnae to contribute to class gift funds.

B urke ’ s will expand its planned giving program and outreach to non-parent constituencies.

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engages in both unstructured and purposeful activity.

B OA RD OF T RUS T E E S | 20 13-20 14

OF F IC E R S

Evan Marwell, President Ravin Agrawal, Vice President Louisa Consagra ’78, Secretary Lara Witter, Treasurer Evie Davis, At-Large Dana Goldberg ’90, At-Large Gretchen Hansen, At-Large E X - OF F I C I O

Michele Williams, Head of School Meeta Arcuri, President of PA Gabrielle Kivitz ’89, President of Alumnae Board TRUSTEES

Wells Blaxter Ambi Bowo Travis Brownley Laura Brugger Jennifer Caldwell Scott Crabill Brooks Doggett Nel Ellwein Barre Fong Chris Hauswirth Leigh Sherwood Matthes Nancy Mayeda Arrie Park MacGregor Read Sara Recktenwald Rachel Skiffer ’88 Julia Wong ’83 Annie Robinson Woods Adam Young

STR ATEGI C P L ANNI NG C O M M I TTEE

Laura Brugger, Chair Jennifer Caldwell Gail Chang Louisa Consagra Scott Crabill Nel Ellwein Jeannine Elzey Robert Jay Green Val Hansel Gretchen Hansen Mike Harms Chris Hauswirth Reed Maltzman Leigh Sherwood Matthes Jeanette Moore Sara Recktenwald Selena Shadle Carla Silver — Executive Director, Leadership + Design Michele Williams Rebekah Wolman Anna Yatroussis

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is curious and focused, creative and methodical, open-minded and discerning.

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contributes to and learns from the community around her.

Katherine Delmar Burke School 7070 California Street San Francisco, CA 94121

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID SAN FRANCISCO, CA PERMIT NO. 1734