CCDS Five-Year Strategic Plan

COUNTRY DAY

FORWARD THE FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN

Our plan for a brighter tomorrow begins today.

THE FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN

Cincinnati Country Day School has a strong foundation for future growth resulting from a clear and compelling mission, healthy enrollment comprised of a motivated and diverse student body, a passionate and skilled faculty, a challenging curriculum, and an engaged, supportive community.

No thriving institution remains static, so it is essential we build on our almost 100-year history by actively seeking ways to FORWARD Country Day’s legacy of excellence and to ensure that our students are ideally prepared to lead productive and fulfilling lives.

The knowledge and skills required to succeed are increasingly complex.

Creativity, communication, collaboration, ethical decision making and critical thought are proficiencies that young people will need to employ in the workplace and their personal lives. Therefore, the foundation of an enduring education must provide students with the intellectual tools to make choices and to understand their responsibilities to the wider world.

We will measure success by how well our students anticipate, prepare for, and embrace their future.

BUILDING FROM A STRONG FOUNDATION Our mission remains constant: “Cincinnati Country Day School provides each student with superior preparation for success in college and life.

We inspire a passion for learning and independent thinking through a steadfast commitment to academic excellence, personal integrity, and service to others.”

Fulfilling our mission has always relied on highly skilled and dedicated educators who know and nurture each student — providing opportunities for our students to perform at their highest potential academically, artistically, athletically, and ethically.

These essential components of our strategic plan reflect and build on our core strengths: • renewing Country Day’s commitment to seek, develop, and retain the best educators • implementing three programs that will advance our curriculum to best prepare our students for their future These components — investing in our educators and enriching our students’ educational experience — will enhance Country Day’s core strengths and guide our future success. We also recognize the need to build our school’s financial resources to sustain our tradition of excellence and will undertake a comprehensive financial vitality campaign.

The future looks amazing.

Under the leadership of the school’s administration and in collaboration with our students, the faculty and staff will carry out the following three pillars of our strategic plan. The pillars inform what, how, and where we will teach to propel our students forward.

INNOVATIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING

We will create the most engaging educational environment by continually examining how students best learn and use that research to continue developing the most effective and pioneering teaching.

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

We will develop responsible global citizens through curricular and co-curricular opportunities that foster the skills, knowledge, and empathy required to engage ethically and successfully in a rapidly changing and interconnected world.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

We will instill a culture of sustainability and purposeful connection to the natural world through education, partnerships, action, and self-assessment that will empower and inspire our community members to be stewards of our environment.

Underpinning these pillars, and essential to their viability, is bolstering Country Day’s financial resources. We will launch a major fundraising effort to ensure that we continue to attract, retain, and develop outstanding educators, to fund learning and teaching innovation, to sustain a diverse and inclusive learning community, and to maintain and enhance our unique campus and facilities.

our strategic plan KEY INITIATIVES The Innovative Learning and Teaching Pillar has three action initiatives.

The first focuses on teaching. The second, on learning. The third — the Inspiration and Engagement Hub — effectively and imaginatively links the other two.

our vision We will create the most engaging educational environment by continually examining how students best learn, and use that research to continue developing the most effective and pioneering teaching.

01 | Faculty Recruitment & Professional Development We will foster an environment where our talented educators thrive by building a faculty recruitment, retention, and professionaldevelopment program that empowers our faculty to strengthen their craft, to collaborate, and to innovate. Our mission depends on the skill and dedication of teachers and staff who are trained in the latest research on how students learn and who are engaged in close, nurturing relationships with their students. This initiative embraces our guiding principle that every student is known and nurtured.

02 | Knowledge In Action We will create learning opportunities that go beyond traditional classroom practices and empower students to demonstrate critical, creative, and entrepreneurial thinking and to apply their knowledge in meaningful ways. Adhering to our guiding motto, “Virtue in Action,” we will develop students who go beyond accessing knowledge to creating, serving, learning by doing, and demonstrating what they know by engaging in the real world.

03 | Inspiration & Engagement Hub We will create a physical and virtual hub led by a Director of Innovative Learning and Teaching to support authentic learning opportunities for students and teachers and foster collaboration in and outside the school.

We want to inspire our students to take the initiative to follow their passions and develop perseverance, flexibility, curiosity, adaptability, and resourcefulness. We will aid teachers in adopting innovative, research-based approaches to learning and teaching, including interactive technologies, experiential learning, and different methods of formative assessment.

INSPIRE

INNOVATIVE LEARNING & TEACHING

our strategic plan KEY INITIATIVES The Global Engagement Pillar has three action initiatives. The first focuses on curricular and co-curricular learning. The second, on promoting a global mindset and “glocal” learning opportunities.

The third, on expanding travel and exchange programs.

01 | International-Minded Curriculum

our vision We will develop responsible global citizens through curricular and co-curricular opportunities that foster the skills, knowledge, and empathy required to engage ethically and successfully in a rapidly changing and interconnected world.

We will explore and further develop curricular and co-curricular programs that create an international mindset in our graduates. We will coordinate multi-divisional curricular and co-curricular offerings to allow our students to expand their understanding and empathy for people and cultures that may be very different from their own. We will explore the adoption of an optional global certificate of distinction to complement a CCDS diploma and/or a possible graduation requirement to broaden a global experience for students. Moreover, Country Day will seek to provide an environment that values an internationally diverse community and promotes respect, understanding, and inclusion.

02 | “Glocal” Learning Opportunities We will explore partnerships with multinational corporations and organizations based in Cincinnati to provide work experiences that help students discover their passions and develop skills through learning by doing. Through internships and shadowing opportunities that are “glocal” (global experience in a local setting), Country Day students will explore different careers while learning about decisions and strategies multinational organizations use to navigate and succeed in countries beyond the borders of the United States.

03 | Global Exposure Program We will develop our students’ international mindset by developing a comprehensive program that allows students to travel to foreign countries and brings foreign visitors to campus. We must give students opportunities to engage meaningfully in places they learn about in their classes through such activities as service, language immersion, and research and study. Understanding that foreign travel requires resources and time and may not be a possibility for or desire of all families, Country Day will bring foreign guests, visitors, and exchange students to campus to share their own cultures. This program will be founded in sister-school relationships, exchanges, and travel/study trips and will build on Country Day’s existing programs and tradition of sending students abroad.

FOSTER

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

our strategic plan KEY INITIATIVES

our vision

More than 90 years ago, our school was established “Five Miles Farther” to take advantage of a rural setting. The founders were committed to outdoor education and the study of nature. Students devoted the afternoons to outdoor play and sports or to nature study in the fields and woodlands. The Environmental Commitment Pillar has three action initiatives. They center on teaching students and the community the importance of being knowledgeable about and acting in concert with the environment.

We will instill a culture

01 | Promote Environmental Stewardship

of sustainability and purposeful connection to the natural world through education, partnerships, action, and self-assessment that will empower and inspire our community members to steward our environment.

We will reduce our school’s environmental impact and improve its energy efficiency, which will have an ongoing, positive effect on the school’s budget. The data and stories of facility improvements will be shared with students and teachers to build environmental awareness and to enhance curricular and extra-curricular programs.

02 | Deeper Connections with Nature We will become a leader among independent schools in making the natural world an essential part of campus learning. We will coordinate with the Director of Innovative Learning and Teaching to support a framework across divisions to teach how environments function and how people can live sustainably and benefit from a relationship with nature.

As part of this effort, we will use our 62-acre campus as a dynamic living laboratory to provide creative opportunities for environmental education.

03 | Environmental Director We will establish the role of an Environmental Director to develop and lead curriculum innovations and programs based on deeper connections with nature. The director will further work to cultivate partnerships to broaden the impact of the Country Day initiatives beyond the campus.

GROW

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

y

As we look to the next five years and beyond, we plan to invest in our most important resources — our teachers and students. We are not immune to the challenges facing all independent schools, including: • adjusting to the shifts in enrollment trends • remaining unique in a crowded educational landscape • achieving a balanced financial model that considers fixed operational costs and financial assistance for students

Financial Vitality: Help keep Country Day moving FORWARD.

To ensure Country Day continues to flourish, we will undertake a comprehensive financial vitality effort. An endowment campaign, planned giving program, and direct giving opportunities will focus on investing in our teachers and enriching the educational experience of our students and their future success.

With your strong support, there is no limit to the success and amazing opportunities that will continue to be available for our school, your children, and their future.

For generations, donors, families, and alumni have supported the core needs of our school. Over the next five years, we will build on Country Day’s strong legacy of generosity as we expand our horizons in the philanthropic sense. By participating, you can help drive Country Day’s forward momentum, and the benefits to our faculty and students will be profound.

The financial planning and campaign strategies implemented by leadership over the next five years will position Country Day as an exemplar of financial responsibility, growth, and sustainability. Whether dollars raised are directed for immediate programmatic use, endowment, or operations, each dollar will be allocated toward a lasting source that supports the mission, principles, and legacy of Country Day.

We welcome you to be a part of Country Day’s efforts to lift the banner of philanthropy.

Since 1926, we’ve been focused on providing innovative preparation to our students so they are ready to achieve success in college and in life.

TIMELINE | OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

AUGUST 2015 • WORK INITIATED • STEERING COMMITTEE FORMED

OCTOBER 2015 • TRANSFORUM • DATA GATHERING • INSPIRATION AUDITS

SEPTEMBER 2015 • STEERING COMMITTEE MEETS • DATA GATHERING BEGINS

DECEMBER 2015 • RETREAT DISCOVERY • DATA COMPILED

NOVEMBER 2015 • 1.5 DAY RETREAT •C OMMITTEE & CABINET MEET

FEBRUARY 2016 • PILLAR GROUPS FORMED • DEFINED MEASURES AND ACCOUNTABILITY • DRAFT PLANNING DOCUMENT

JANUARY 2016 • STATE-OF-SCHOOL MEETING • COMMUNITY FEEDBACK • PILLARS IDENTIFIED

The development of Country Day’s strategic plan has been a collaborative effort. It reflects the invaluable perspective of faculty, staff, parents, students, alumni and the Board of Trustees.

This broad involvement not only led to a clear and compelling strategic plan, it reinforced the passion, dedication, and integrity that are hallmarks of the Country Day community. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all involved and look forward to putting our plan into action to ensure that Country Day and our students flourish in the coming years.

JUNE 2016 • PILLARS ESTABLISHED

MARCH – MAY 2016 • PILLARS DEFINED, DISCUSSED, AND PRIORITIZED

SEPTEMBER 2016 •P LAN PRESENTED TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND APPROVED

JULY – AUGUST 2016 •P LAN WRITTEN AND FINALIZED

NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2016 • COMMUNICATION PLAN DEVELOPED

OCTOBER 2016 • COMMUNICATION PLAN ESTABLISHED

JANUARY 2017 • OFFICIAL LAUNCH

Strategic Plan Committee STEERING COMMITTEE Greg Faulhaber Tom Langlois ‘77

Jon Hall Jeanne Parlin

Tony Jaccaci

PILLAR TEAMS Innovative Learning and Teaching Jamie Back Jody Brant ‘87 Aaron Kellenberger John Mackenzie Marilyn O’Brien Marcus Twyford

Global Engagement Steve Albert Jeanette Hecker Anne Maier Wendy Taylor

Rob Baker Sandy Gross ‘86 Tom Langlois ‘77* Lisa O’Brien Nick Recker Daniel Wood

Sarah Beyreis Jen Jensen* Stephanie Luebbers Jeremiah McCall Priscilla Schoeny

Merle Black Theresa Hirschauer* Chris Milmoe Louise Vaughan

Joel Hager Shailesh Jejurikar Aparna Shah Ashley Ward*

Environmental Commitment David Briggs ‘83* Peter Niehoff ‘05 Casey Schnieber* Wally Welch

Financial Vitality Merle Black Woody Taft ‘87* Anne Maier

Mike Busch Nate Johnston Suzy Smyth Chris Woodside

Bill Hopple ‘71 Kaki Scheer Matt Strauss ‘88

Nick Recker Chris Woodside Todd Witt

Karl Scheer ‘93 Jody Brant ‘87*

*Designates Pillar Team Co-Chairs

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES •E nsure a school environment where every student, 18 months to 18 years, is known and nurtured.

•P rovide a vibrant learning community with opportunities for students to perform at their highest potential academically, artistically, athletically, and altruistically.

•S ustain an inclusive, diverse, community of individuals who learn from, and about, one another.

OUR MISSION Cincinnati Country Day School provides each student with superior preparation for success in college and life. We inspire a passion for learning and independent thinking through a steadfast commitment to academic excellence, personal integrity, and service to others.

•A ttract and retain an outstanding faculty who stimulate intellectual curiosity and engender in students a lifelong love of learning.

•T each, through example, relationships, and purposeful instruction, our character virtues of respect, responsibility, integrity, courage, and compassion.

•E mbrace advancements in pedagogy and technology as critical components of a contemporary education.

•E stablish productive partnerships with parents to foster student success.

•C elebrate traditions as they connect the past to the future.

CINCINNATI COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL 6905 Given Road | Cincinnati, OH 45243-2898 | 513.561.7298 www.CountryDay.net