The 2016 Strategic Plan

St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School

Strategic Plan 2016

Our School St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School is a college preparatory Episcopal Church School in the Diocese of Virginia that educates 1,120 boys and girls from junior kindergarten through grade 12. The school operates on three distinct campuses in Alexandria, serving students from across Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

What We Do -

Our Mission To help our students succeed in a complex and changing world, we seek to inspire a passion for learning, an enthusiasm for athletic and artistic endeavor, a striving for excellence, a celebration of diversity, and a commitment to service. Our mission is to pursue goodness as well as knowledge and to honor the unique value of each of our members as a child of God in a caring community.

Dear Saints Community, It is from a position of great strength that St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School launched a strategic planning process during the 2015-2016 school year.

This strategic plan reflects the values and honored legacies of our school, while calling for bold movements forward to ensure that we are well-positioned to prepare our students for whatever challenges and opportunities the future holds. We are proud of how we have approached and managed change over time, appreciating the rich tradition of honest institutional reflection, and thoughtful, strategic decision-making. Therefore, we are confident that the implementation of this strategic plan will be met with the same mindful consideration, collaboration, and success.

Paramount among our intentions during this process is to honor our mission and values and to promote the distinct culture and community that is St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School. Among the guiding principles of this plan is a commitment to continue the outstanding work of those who believe in the lifelong and life-changing value of a Saints education. Through the passion and dedication of an extraordinary faculty and staff, the school fosters the highest standards of academic and artistic achievement, moral growth and behavior, service to others, and athletic endeavor.

St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School embraces a mission to pursue goodness as well as knowledge, distinguishing not only what we teach and how we learn, but also who our students become. This is at the center of our school’s identity and is an integral part of the school’s strategic plan. We remain committed to cultivating a highly motivated and engaged student body; building and supporting a culture of diversity and inclusion; hiring and supporting an outstanding faculty and administration; nurturing an environment of innovative teaching and inspired learning; evaluating how our facilities best support our programs; and enhancing our school’s distinguished reputation in the regional landscape of independent schools. Furthermore, we are invested in developing more meaningful engagement with the greater community through service opportunities and partnerships that will facilitate long-term, mutually beneficial learning experiences for our students.

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I am excited to share with you the goals and objectives of the strategic plan.

With the community’s support of this plan, our school will make great strides forward, becoming an even more exceptional place. I look forward to taking this exciting journey with all of you.

Warmly,

Kirsten Prettyman Adams

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Framing Our Strategic Vision By all traditional measures, St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School is an extremely strong institution, as demonstrated by an outstanding Virginia Association of Independent Schools accreditation report, robust enrollment and fiscal health, and thriving academic and school life programs. Additional intangible, yet clearly palpable metrics also affirm the success of our school: a passion for teaching and learning, a culture of honor and integrity, and a welcoming and joyful community.

And while we are proud of where we stand as an institution, we have never been a “rest on our laurels” type of community. To this end, faculty members, parents, Board members, administrators, and alumni collaborated to chart an inspiring and energizing path forward, focusing on everything from curriculum to community to facilities. We are confident that we will be able to maintain the traditions and traits that are core to who we are, while boldly moving forward to ensure that St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School is a thriving community of teaching and learning for generations to come.

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Our Goals Vision I. Grounded in Tradition. Forward Thinking: Academic and Campus Programs Clarify, strengthen, and refresh our rigorous and cohesive JK-12 educational program with a particular focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, service, and wellness.

II. Unique Stories. Shared Experiences: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Embrace our role as a leader in fostering a place for all and a culture of dialogue and action around our world’s most complex issues and challenges.

III. Alexandria. Washington, D.C. The World: Wider Community Engagement Develop strong, focused, strategic partnerships that extend beyond our campuses, and build relationships that will have a positive impact on the broader community and will inspire a lifelong commitment to serving others.

IV. Who We Are: Identity and Message Clearly communicate the value of a Saints education so as to position ourselves as one of the premier academic institutions in the greater Washington area.

V. Three Distinct Campuses. One Cohesive Community: Enhancing Our Buildings and Grounds Evaluate the effectiveness of our existing campuses and ensure that they create the optimum environment for teaching, learning, designing, innovating, and collaborating.

VI. Realizing Our Vision: Financial Stewardship Enhance opportunities for increasing resources, building upon our strong financial foundation in order to support our ambitious and worthy strategic path forward.

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I. Grounded in Tradition. Forward Thinking: Academic and Campus Programs Clarify, strengthen, and refresh our rigorous and cohesive JK-12 educational program with a particular focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, service, and wellness.

• Foster a culture of thinking, exploration, and academic risk-taking.

• Continue to attract, retain, and support an outstanding faculty and staff, building upon a tradition of excellence as the school enhances, develops, and implements programs.

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Highlight, enhance, and develop signature programs that exemplify our academic strengths, support our mission, and differentiate us.

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Develop a signature program (such as a Social Entrepreneurship Program) where students positively impact the greater community by utilizing strong academic skills, creative problem-solving, and exceptional communication skills.

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Improve vertical integration, collaboration, and transitions between and within each of our three divisions (Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools) to ensure a consistently strong, connected JK-12 experience.

• Foster a culture of wellness that promotes health and balance in mind, body, and spirit.

• Develop a common understanding of the goals of our service-learning program and the best ways for those goals to be achieved.

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Explore in all three divisions and school-wide how we allocate time on a daily and annual basis to ensure that the schedule aligns with our mission and priorities.

II. Unique Stories. Shared Experiences: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Embrace our role as a leader in fostering a place for all and a culture of dialogue and action around our world’s most complex issues and challenges.

• Continue to cultivate an environment in which all members of the community feel valued and affirmed.

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Ensure that cultural competency skills (understanding difference, identity, perspective, diversity, and justice) are vital elements of student education and adult professional development.

Foster a community that upholds high

standards in regard to respectful and thoughtful discourse.

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Ensure that our school reflects the demographics of our region by attracting more culturally, ethnically, religiously, and socioeconomically diverse students and faculty.

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III. Alexandria. Washington, D.C. The World: Wider Community Engagement Develop strong, focused, strategic partnerships that extend beyond our campuses, build relationships that will have a positive impact on the broader community and will inspire a lifelong commitment to serving others.

• Partner with the community to build lasting, reciprocal relationships that increase our collective quality of life.

• Explore how the intellectual and material resources of our school can be shared for the benefit of the broader community.

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• Communicate and celebrate our commitment to and support of our external engagements.

Create opportunities for every student to form meaningful relationships and to be an engaged, productive member of the world beyond our campuses.

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IV. Who We Are: Identity and Message Clearly communicate the value of a Saints education so as to position ourselves as one of the premier academic institutions in the greater Washington area.

• Simplify our school’s identity to ensure that it can be communicated in a clear, consistent, and compelling manner.

• Institute a communications and marketing plan to communicate our brand identity and the value of an SSSAS education.

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• Translate “goodness as well as knowledge” into an effective message to convey core values and a sense of wellness for our students.

• Highlight and leverage our Episcopal identity as an integral part of who we are and what we do.

V. Three Distinct Campuses. One Cohesive Community: Enhancing Our Buildings and Grounds Evaluate the effectiveness of our existing campuses and ensure that they create the optimum environment for teaching, learning, designing, innovating, and collaborating.

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Evaluate current academic, arts, and athletic facilities to determine the degree to which they are meeting programmatic needs, and ensure they have the flexibility to meet future needs.

• Ensure that the school’s facilities can respond to enrollment needs.

• Ensure that our facilities reflect the school’s history, mission, and commitment to sustainability, while distinguishing us from competitors and showcasing the school’s brand.

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VI. Realizing Our Vision: Financial Stewardship Enhance opportunities for increasing resources and building upon our strong financial foundation in order to support our ambitious and worthy strategic path forward. • Enhance school advancement efforts by revisiting policies and strategies in order to fund the priorities of the strategic plan. • Enhance our stewardship of resources to ensure that we are utilizing them prudently and strategically.

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• Commit the necessary time and financial resources to ensure that we attract and retain a socioeconomically diverse school.

St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School Kirsten Prettyman Adams Head of School Robert Weiman Associate Head of School 703-751-2700 www.SSSAS.org/strategicplan