SD2021 Strategic Plan Update

SD2021

By Dan Babior, Director of Strategic Initiatives I am extremely pleased to share that in June 2018, San Domenico School completed Phase I of our Strategic Plan, SD2021. From the initial planning stages in 2012 to the Plan’s launch in 2016, our Board of Trustees, committee members, school administrators, faculty, and qualified consultants have approached every aspect of the Plan with thoughtful intention. During Phase I we selected 54 initiatives to implement across our five strategic goals, examining every detail of the student experience as well as the long-term success and cohesiveness of the School from Kindergarten through 12th grade. It is so exciting to see the evolution of our now fully coed high school, the growth of our classroom programs at all levels, and the physical improvements to campus, giving students an even greater capacity to live, learn, and grow in the dynamic SD community.

You may have heard that there are a lot of new prospective students shadowing in the Upper School and exploring all that SD has to offer. You may have seen the new middle school courtyard, the comfy chairs in the library commons, or the redesigned patio by the dorms buzzing with students during morning break and after school. Your child may have told you about spirit day dodgeball, or reading time with lower and upper school buddies.

Maybe you’ve been invited to volunteer and found new ways to become involved at SD. These are just a few of the many developments that are part of SD 2021 and our ongoing commitment to the future of an exceptional educational experience at San Domenico.

Leading the way in the continued progress of SD 2021 is the Strategic Implementation Team, a group of school leaders and directors established in 2017 to track and guide the targeted projects from beginning to end, with assistance

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and input from faculty, staff, and administrators from all levels. We are excited to share a few of the developments below that were a part of Phase I, and we are already making great progress on items planned for Phase II. For more information or to read SD 2021 in its entirety, please visit sandomenico.org/SD2021.

GOAL 1: Provide an increasingly vibrant educational experience by ensuring our Dominican values of Study, Reflection, Community, and Service inform all of our programs Extending coeducation to the Upper School in 2015 paved the way for a nearly 70 percent increase in enrollment in grades 9-12. This also established SD as a truly K-12 school, where any student could enroll in Kindergarten and graduate from the Upper School.

In the Upper School, we created a grade level dean system, added a second college counselor, and expanded our curriculum to include Engineering, AP Economics, AP Computer

Strategic Plan Update Science, Film/Digital Arts, and integrated LEAF (Leadership, Environment, Advocacy, Focus) components.

The addition of new sports teams and SD’s participation in a more competitive athletic division expanded our athletic offerings and increased participation.

Lower and Middle School each have their own student learning commons, dedicated spaces that are warm, welcoming, and comfortable.

SD became an early leader in Harvard University’s Making Caring Common Project, building on the School’s strong social and emotional curriculum and developing new internal initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion awareness.

of San Francisco as such. Likewise, the School will no longer be accredited by the Western Catholic Educational Association (WCEA).

The School will continue to remain accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). San Domenico School will also continue to be a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).

Faculty and administrators have increased SD’s presence in the independent school world, by presenting at national school conferences, participating in CAIS accreditation teams, and serving on nonprofit school-related boards.

GOAL 2: Strengthen San Domenico’s identity as an independent school and clearly articulate our inclusive spiritual foundation Our primary goal to communicate clearly that San Domenico is an Independent school in the Dominican tradition is consistent across all our admissions and marketing materials and at School events. Applications to SD have nearly doubled since 2014.

The Dominican Sisters of San Rafael determined that the School will no longer be a Catholic school and will not be recognized by the Archdiocese

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GOAL 3: Create a cohesive educational experience across all grades, inspiring families to remain at San Domenico through high school graduation Upper School students have been paired with kindergarten and first grade students to help build the young ones’ writing and reading skills, and we have held Spirit Days for grades six through 12.

Our new website has been launched and a weekly communications system was developed and implemented that allows for greater consistency and better user experience across grade and school levels.

GOAL 5: Ensure San Domenico’s long-term success through inspired governance and leadership, prudent financial management, dynamic student recruitment, bold philanthropic initiatives, and investment in facilities Many of the initiatives for this goal are related to increasing the demand for enrollment at all levels. We developed and are implementing an international recruitment strategy to keep our boarding program robust and diverse. This entailed hiring additional staff, creating specific marketing materials, and executing a travel plan to international markets with enrollment potential.

The number of SD eighth grade students going to our Upper School has increased dramatically, from four middle school alums continuing in the high school in 2014 to 24 eighth graders who moved up in 2018. This increase is a direct result of an action plan to provide comprehensive admissions information for prospective SD eighth graders and their families during their final year of middle school.

GOAL 4: Attract, develop, and retain exceptional faculty who embody and support the mission and vision of San Domenico The primary initiative for this goal was in the area of faculty compensation. Considerable progress has been made to bring salaries to market level.

We have expanded our recruitment for prospective employees with particular emphasis on increasing the diversity of our workforce.

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The SD Summer Program has been expanded to allow for more international and regional boarding participants, while still providing a wonderful, fun, and educational experience for Marin county campers of all ages.

There is considerable and ongoing effort to amend SD traffic restrictions that will serve our future viability as a K-12 school while simultaneously creating more sustainable opportunities to share our campus with the local community.

This year, 18 significant campus facilities projects were undertaken that serve all school levels in athletics, academics, and community building, and we are developing a three-year plan regarding facilities use as all of our school levels reach full enrollment.

Our high-level curriculum, the abundance of teaching experience, and a focused administration keep SD on par with the best schools in the Bay Area and nationally. Our programs’ continued success is dependent on the functionality of the spaces we inhabit, so creating the road map for the ongoing improvement of San Domenico’s facilities as well as developing a multiyear plan for sustaining the financial health of our school will help ensure that San Domenico thrives well into the future. Phase II coincides with our self-study for our CAIS accreditation, a process that will allow for deep reflection and help lay the groundwork for our next strategic plan.

As Phase I of our plan approached completion in 2018, the Strategic Implementation Team was already hard at work developing Phase II. Our primary commitment is to enhance the quality of the student experience in the areas of curriculum, athletics, and social, emotional, and spiritual health.

As part of Phase II, we will turn our attention to the arts and technology literacy. Fulfilling SD’s potential as a K-12 school is realized through initiatives that contribute to the all-school culture with curriculum, resources, and activities tailored to the specific needs of each grade level.

We approach the next phase of SD2021 with a renewed energy that comes from seeing, hearing, and feeling the elements of progress that are woven throughout every students’ day. There is more work to be done, but we have already accomplished a great deal and it is inspiring to see the newest chapter of SD unfolding. As the stewards of California’s oldest independent school, we are continuing a 169-year long tradition of rising to the challenges of our ever-evolving world, developing both great students and great people.

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