ST. MARY’S STRATEGIC PLAN ASCEND 2026

Approximately 35 people spent 189 days holding more than 60 meetings to develop a blueprint to guide St. Mary’s for the next 5 years. The result: ASCEND 2026, a strategic plan that sets performance objectives and strategies to achieve them in four categories: Student Success, Student Well-Being, Operational Excellence and Partnerships. “The emerging theme was that student experience was going to drive our future success,” said Mark Doyle ’76, who co-chaired Ascend 2026 with Ellen Fritz ’86 P’21’23. “We wanted all groups to look at it through the lens of student experience.” The ASCEND 2026 committee, with guidance from Public Consulting Group, collected feedback from students, parents, faculty and staff, trustees, the Sacred Heart School community and other stakeholders. The committee split into three groups, all chaired by trustees: Student Experience (Fritz and Elizabeth Molloy Twomey ’52), Physical Plant (Paul Price ’75 and Glenn Morris ’65), and Resources (Jim Lyle). The groups were charged with soliciting input and detailing strengths and weaknesses in order to build the 5-year plan. “The idea was to determine where we want to end up for all students and develop performance objectives along the way to guide our work,” said Fritz, whose son, Lucas, graduated in 2021 and daughter, Allie, is a junior. “We rolled up our sleeves and went to work. We needed to see what those performance objectives looked like.”

• Each student will participate in at least one extracurricular activity. • Each student will have a personalized learning plan to meet their needs. • Each elementary (Sacred Heart) and middle school (Marian Division) student will have an older student as a buddy/mentor. • St. Mary’s will invest in adjustment counselors and programming for students’ emotional and mental health. • St. Mary’s will actively recruit an employee base that is reflective of the students it serves. • The partnerships/volunteer opportunities will meet the needs of students, specifically with regard to the creation of real-world experiences.

Fritz said it was important to include teachers in the conversations. “They have to take this and make it a living document,” she said of ASCEND 2026. “We have a beautiful, new building. We have to make sure we can deliver instruction that matches.” The ASCEND 2026 committee met for the first time on Jan. 27 and presented their work at a board retreat on August 4 – a period of barely more than six months, an ambitious timeline to say the least. “It seems like record speed, but you don’t realize that when you’re going through it,” said Fritz, who serves as principal of Lynn Woods Elementary School. “There were a lot of great people involved.”

Fritz and Doyle said much of the credit for the efficiency of the process belongs to Lindsay Lockwood, Chief Operating Officer at the school, who kept everyone on task. “Lindsay was our air traffic controller,” said Doyle, who is executive vice president of Global Marketing at Natixis. Lockwood facilitated the conversations among the committee and various stakeholders, along with the compilation of the feedback and data. “I was beyond happy to be a part of a board-led, boarddriven strategic plan,” Lindsay said. “It was beneficial to hear from stakeholders where we are and what we could do to improve. It was really inspiring and exciting to hear all the perspectives. We want to work in tandem to see how we can be better and have a greater impact.” One of the byproducts of the strategic planning process was the notion that St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart are one school with two campuses. “We want to align curriculum so there is a smooth transition from grade to grade,” Fritz said. With the plan having been formalized, the work of executing it is underway. “The strategic plan is a roadmap. Follow-up is mission critical. This plan will inform the work of all committees moving forward,” Doyle said, adding that trustees Shari McGuirk and Paul Price are chairing monthly meetings to ensure that the implementation stays on track. “A plan is just a plan unless you put it into action. We’ve passed the baton to the next group, but we have a vested interest in making sure the collective work goes on to the next chapter.” Fritz said she hopes St. Mary’s alumni will take this opportunity to become more informed and involved with what is happening on campus. “We urge alumni to come back and take a look,” she said. “I think some will be pleasantly surprised to see what St. Mary’s has grown into.” And to where it plans to ascend.

by Paul Halloran