Lawrenceville 20/20: A Strategic Plan for The Lawrenceville School

A VISION FOR THE

FUTURE LAWRENCEVILLE 20/20

A Strategic Plan for The Lawrenceville School

MISSION STATEMENT Through House and Harkness, Lawrenceville challenges a diverse community of promising young people to lead lives of learning, integrity, and high purpose.

Our mission is to inspire the best in each to seek the best for all. – Adopted, October 2016

Lawrenceville 20/20

A Strategic Plan for The Lawrenceville School Ensuring the future of Lawrenceville requires a belief in the essential values of the School, bold aspirations for its long-term needs, and the courage to act to meet those needs. For over 200 years, Lawrenceville has produced responsible leaders, creative innovators, and committed public servants, individuals who have been guided by a certain moral compass and who have used the gift of education wisely. Our confidence in our work comes from a faith in the enduring importance of the institution and the higher purpose that it serves.

With this in mind, we present this ambitious vision for the future, a stretching set of aspirations that will focus our time, energy, and resources for the coming years. And in doing so, we build on rock-solid foundations that come from strong traditions, famously loyal alumni and parent support, and a world-class faculty and staff.

Tennyson’s poem of youthful yearning, “Locksley Hall,” invites the reader to look to an inspiring and optimistic future: “For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.” As we seek to ensure a strong future for Lawrenceville, with similar hopes and dreams, we might turn to our own “Triumphant Lawrence,” composed by E.C. Douglas, Class of 1896. His song of hopeful yearning concludes with a reference to the “loyal hearts” defending Lawrenceville, “Forever and for aye.” Indeed, Lawrenceville, forever and for always.

Sincerely,

Stephen S. Murray H’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 The Shelby Cullom Davis ’26 Head Master

î ‹ For more than two centuries, Lawrenceville has differentiated itself among the very best schools by its unique combination of educational assets and values-centered priorities. A compelling and deepening body of research reminds us that the cultivation of emotional intelligence, ease of human interaction and trust-building within groups, personal integrity, and self-confidence acquired through close mentorship, and other non-cognitive personality traits are among the most important and reliable predictors of success and achievement.

In a remarkably consistent manner, generations of Lawrentians describe the value of belonging to something larger than oneself and one’s individual needs; they describe the selflessness, patience, and discipline required to earn a place on the team or at the table; and they identify the teachers and coaches who had a lifelong influence on them. These are key elements in the educational experience and have a profound and lasting effect.

Lawrenceville 20/20 seeks to elevate and strengthen the transformational nature of the Lawrenceville experience, which draws upon long-established pillars: a strong sense of belonging to a community based on character and integrity; engaging and challenging academics that instill creativity and confidence; and life-changing role models who bring out our better selves.

Lawrenceville 20/20 invites us to be bold, to aim high, and to build an exciting future.

WE BEGAN WITH OUR MISSION

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trategic planning begins with an examination of mission. A bold vision for the future, particularly one that will inspire change, should be rooted firmly and confidently in the context of the more permanent, enduring, institutional purpose.

While the well-established foundations of Lawrenceville are not easily subject to change, our

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We will secure Lawrenceville’s position as one of the truly great schools by enhancing and elevating this fundamentally relational and richly challenging environment.

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mission statement, the specific articulation of our reason for being, should be periodically tended. The wording of the statement must strike a balance: on the one hand the language should be transcendent and rise above specific eras and phases of the School; and at the same time it must retain an element of relevance and timeliness.

We therefore began the forward-looking process with

a community-wide discussion aimed at revisiting our roots and our common understanding of the institutional fabric. The strong consensus from our preliminary discussions was that we wanted a significantly more concise, more distinctive, more lyrical articulation than the existing Mission provided.

A faculty writing committee was charged with crafting this statement of enduring purpose,

taking into account elements of the existing Mission and carefully considering input from all constituencies. This final, tightly-worded version, recommended by the faculty and approved by the Board of Trustees, has a concise, poetic flow; highlights distinctive features that are fundamental to the Lawrenceville experience; and evokes the importance of pursuing a meaningful purpose in life. When the final draft was unveiled to the faculty, it evoked a spontaneous and sustained round of applause.

MISSION STATEMENT Through House and Harkness, Lawrenceville challenges a diverse community of promising young people to lead lives of learning, integrity, and high purpose.

Architectural rendering of the new Abbott Dining Hall.

Our mission is to inspire the best in each to seek the best for all.

THE VISION FOR LAWRENCEVILLE 20/20

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or Lawrenceville in the 21st century, progress means preserving and strengthening community amidst increasing diversity, cultivating students who are entrepreneurial thinkers and problem-solvers, investing in faculty and staff so they can continue to make Lawrenceville a transformative experience, and ensuring that our School remains both affordable and financially sustainable. Lawrenceville’s tradition of progress has served it well over the past two centuries; we now seek to emulate this tradition for a new era.

In a world of distance learning and depersonalized social networking, our residential,

values-based, intensely personal approach to education has never been more relevant or more vitally important. Through House and Harkness, on teams and in troupes, Lawrenceville fosters a unique sense of belonging, gathering talented young people from far and wide to learn with and from each other. In this context, students thrive on rigorous, creative engagement with exceptional teachers, who inspire confidence, instill initiative, build character, and spark a sense of optimism and high purpose.

We will secure Lawrenceville’s position as one of the truly great schools by enhancing and elevating this fundamentally relational and richly challenging environment. Our world urgently needs Lawrenceville’s responsible leaders, committed problem-solvers, and thoughtful innovators who seek to make a difference.

Therefore: 1 We will celebrate and reinforce our belief in community because growth and development occur best in the context of close, supportive relationships.

2 We will develop head and hands and lead the way with experiential learning.

3 We will promote professional excellence because the essential student experience rests on the quality of the faculty and staff.

4 We will strengthen our future through major enhancements to our financial foundations.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

1. Celebrate and Reinforce Community Lawrenceville is fundamentally a socializing and relational experience. Students live in an intentionally diverse and collaborative community, among trusted mentors and role models, and learn to listen, empathize, and communicate across ideological and cultural differences.

Through these relationships and a wide array of academic and co-curricular experiences, Lawrenceville students develop a strong moral compass and the skills for confident, responsible leadership. The following initiatives are aimed at

strengthening and reinforcing the sense of community that supports this development.

Potential Initiatives

 Design and build an architecturally compelling Field House that dynamically draws the community together, showcases our belief in the value of disciplined teamwork and sportsmanship, and serves as a central locus of School spirit and tradition.

 Rethink the dining facility for Second, Third, and Fourth Forms to build community through mealtimes – by House, by Form, and periodically as a School.

 Without compromising rigor, reduce the grinding pace of life for all members of the community so that even within this richly energizing community, a reflective and measured existence is possible. Impose fewer requirements on students so that their passions can increase engagement and drive their choices.

 Further enrich our diverse community with additional recruitment of faculty and administration of color, who can provide mentorship and support to our increasingly diverse student population.

2. Energize Academic Culture Our aim here is to build on a notion already operative at Lawrenceville, that learning through roll-up-your-sleeves application of theory and realworld experience leads to deeper understanding of concepts and an ability to innovate in a creative, problem-solving context. Indeed, the spirit of inquiry fostered through Harkness teaching and the civic responsibility encouraged within our House System already fuel creative pursuits in real-world science research, robotics, community service, and travel abroad – all examples of hands-on learning by doing.

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“Students live in an intentionally diverse and collaborative community, among trusted mentors and role models, and learn to listen, empathize, and communicate across ideological and cultural differences.”

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Potential Initiatives

 We will enhance our

 Because real-world research

commitments to the School Camp and the Big Red Farm, further developing them as experiential learning opportunities with structured learning outcomes. Summer positions will provide students with real-world outlets for a leadership curriculum that teaches initiative, responsibility, and dedication.

opportunities such as the Hutchins and Heely Scholars programs are motivating and bring relevance, we will expand on these models in multiple disciplines.

 Enhancing the creative spaces in the Gruss Center of Visual Arts to expand manual arts and design will allow for more project-based, problem-solving in a Makerspace.

We might imagine a series of design hubs around campus that students use as appropriate for various projects arising from an increase in interdisciplinary, project-based, design courses.

 Entrepreneurship teaches students reality-based approaches to launching an endeavor and is applicable to a wide range of pursuits. An entrepreneurship program might include business plan competitions, app

development, real-world money management, and summer internships through our alumni and parent networks.

3. Further Promote the Professional Community The single most important factor that determines and shapes a student’s Lawrenceville experience is the quality of the teachers, coaches, and other professionals who serve as role models and mentors. Our goal is to expand the resources aimed at recruiting, retaining, and developing our world-class faculty and staff.

Potential Initiatives

 Develop clear performance standards for both faculty and staff and a meaningful, growthoriented evaluation system.

 Develop a goal-oriented, professional growth trajectory for faculty and staff with supporting professional development funds.

 Further empower the faculty voice through standing committees of department chairs, House Masters, and head coaches.

 Implement a survey that allows for a deeper understanding of professional life at Lawrenceville and better data-driven tools for making improvements.

 Devise a leadership framework that creates standards for engaged leadership and purposeful management, to include a 360-degree feedback mechanism.

 Utilize Gallup Q12 Polling to measure employee engagement and professional well-being over time. Extensive research shows a strong correlation between emotional connection to the institution and employee productivity, motivation, initiative, and retention.

4. Strengthen Our Financial Foundations Lawrenceville’s financial stability depends on the interest of current families and generous donors, and our job at the School is to attract both by being the best we can be in all respects. We are proud of where our School stands today, and we are grateful for the tremendous support we currently receive. The following projects are intended to draw attention to substantive areas for improvement.

Potential Initiatives

 Reduce the pace of tuition growth by increasing endowment.

Increasing the endowments for financial aid, student programs, faculty salaries, and facilities maintenance will help reduce our dependence on tuition and ensure that we remain competitive with our institutional peers.

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Summer positions will provide students with real-world outlets for a leadership curriculum that teaches initiative, responsibility, and dedication.

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 Continue to grow the

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Entrepreneurship teaches students reality-based approaches to launching an endeavor and is applicable to a wide range of pursuits.

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Unrestricted Reserve as a hedge against financial volatility and unforeseen events.

 Complete our capital asset renovation plan. A Master Plan is underway to address pending capital projects, particularly those that will significantly impact the quality of the student experience.

Our Field House, once a national icon, is beyond repair; student dining for Second–Fourth Forms requires an upgrade; and our aging Facilities campus needs to be redesigned and relocated.

 Guarantee the legacy of capital gifts by developing rules for raising building

maintenance endowments for new construction.

 Invest in faculty housing to address an on-campus housing shortage and eliminate reliance on rental properties.

 Create a transition fund to allow the Annual Fund to be raised for the following year, not current use. This is simply another hedge against potential economic volatility.

 Increase the staff retirement contribution to match the contribution for faculty. This relatively small and achievable gesture would go a long way toward raising morale and cementing the loyalty of a valuable asset.

IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN As we further develop and sharpen our thinking around our targeted priorities, and specifically, the underlying projects, a key aspect will be to assess the enabling capacities, including personnel, time, and financial resources. We have already undertaken a number of steps to understand and assess what is required to achieve this plan. Among them are the following:

Campus Master Planning Process We have engaged Sasaki Associates, a premier planning and design firm, to conduct an assessment of our needs and develop a master plan for our campus. They will help us

identify opportunities to improve the School based on forwardthinking trends and efficiencies in campus and building space utilization, opportunities that can then be prioritized according to the goals identified in the strategic plan.

Here is what we have asked them to consider: Building a new Field House pgrading or rethinking the Irwin U Dining Center Creating a carless core to the campus pgrading and modernizing the U Bunn Library Athletic field improvements Storm water management xpanding the art and design studios E in the Gruss Center of Visual Arts Office space challenges Faculty housing

Field House Site Analysis and Initial Conceptual Studies The architectural firm of Hastings + Chivetta has performed a useful assessment of the existing building and an analysis of renovation versus new construction. They have also conducted a thorough site analysis, helping us narrow down the options for situating the building.

Financial Modeling We plan to engage Cambridge Associates, the School’s investment advisor, to help us develop an advanced financial strategy that considers opportunity costs and realistic tradeoffs – by modeling the relationships among endowment, fund raising, tuition, and other key variables that together dictate the resources available for the School.

Funding the Initiatives We expect to embark on an ambitious and comprehensive fundraising campaign to help us achieve our goals. The two major elements of this campaign will be:

 A Field House that serves a much larger vision than currently: a powerful, community-based center that draws students together for meals and other activities around health and wellness

 A long-term and ambitious program to build the unrestricted endowment

ENSURING THE NEXT ERA OF SUCCESS  Timing and Assessing Progress Some of our goals are more urgent and near term, such as the Field House, pace of life, and the professional support for our faculty and staff. Some have longer-term implications, such as the growth of our unrestricted endowment. An annual fall review with trustees will assess progress and furnish periodic updates. An in-depth report on the state of the plan will be submitted every four years; the first such comprehensive report will be in the fall of 2020, when we expect to reach the first critical juncture in our progress. At that point, we will have an opportunity to reassess and potentially refine our goals and aspirations as expressed in the original document, which will need to retain a degree of flexibility and fluidity as circumstances, both internal and external, evolve.

 Inspiring the Best in Each to Seek the Best for All If Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” invites us to look to a grand and optimistic future, “Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be,” the goal of this plan is invite the broader Lawrenceville community to imagine an exciting new era for Lawrenceville. We began this narrative with the words of E.C. Douglas, Class of 1896, who rallies our “loyal hearts” to the task: Lawrenceville, “Forever and for aye.” We can end by conjuring the words of our newly minted Mission, which beautifully captures the transcendent spirit of this great and enduring institution:

Through House and Harkness, Lawrenceville challenges a diverse community of promising young people to lead lives of learning, integrity, and high purpose. Our mission is to inspire the best in each to seek the best for all.