TRUE TO TOWER HILL Tower Hill School Strategic Plan 2024-2027
Dear Tower Hill School community, Grounded in a tradition of excellence and inspired by progress, Tower Hill’s next strategic plan, True to Tower Hill, provides a vision for the school through the year 2027. True to Tower Hill tells the school’s story and commits to its future growth. It communicates what our school believes and resolves that Tower Hill will lean into its strong sense of self while also evolving strategically to do better by students and the community than ever before. This values-based clarity and ambitious restlessness is at the heart of what Tower Hill is and always has been. The three pillars of True to Tower Hill–An Engaged Community of Scholars, A Destination School and A Shared Schoolhouse–encapsulate the very essence of Tower Hill. Taken together, these pillars make a foundational statement about our school. We are a community devoted to nurturing individual growth and potential inside a highly sought after Tots through 12 scholarly community. And we are committed to each other and to the humanity of our shared pursuit. Each member of the Tower Hill community experiences and deeply understands what makes our school excellent. Our excellence is rooted in the meaningful connections that take place everyday inside of our community, and we underscore our fundamental belief that optimal learning happens inside strong relationships. These connections and this educational experience are not simply incidental. They do not occur by happenstance. As stewards of the school’s future, it is our responsibility to create the environment in which Tower Hill’s excellence thrives, and True to Tower Hill equips us to do just that. Any strategic planning process asks us both to look toward the horizon and consider what may be possible in the short term. Effective strategic plans embrace a specific set of actionable goals, resisting the desire to address every element of school life or future growth and focusing instead on those areas most in need of immediate attention and resources. As we move toward the implementation of the plan, we will make investments wisely, concentrating on what will make the greatest impact and contribute to the priorities we have outlined in this plan. The success of this plan will rely on a continuation of the school’s disciplined approach to building robust financial models for sound decision-making, guided by a plan that prioritizes the growth of a rigorous academic program, the recruitment and retention of the best teachers and the connectedness of our community. In committing to this plan, we also affirm that Tower Hill will continue to honor its roots as a just and inclusive community concerned with environmental and financial sustainability and committed to operating as a force for good inside the Wilmington community and beyond it.
When you turn this page, you will be reminded of our motto, Multa Bene Facta, Many Things Done Well, which serves as a philosophical rudder for the school. At Tower Hill, our purpose is our students’ success, and we set the standard of excellence in a wide variety of arenas so that our students can discover their gifts, relish exploration and heighten their focus by feeling a sense of freedom. We commit to a program that builds scholar-athletes who do not specialize to the detriment of their own growth and balance, instead participating broadly in our program by contributing their talents to classrooms and fields all over campus. This philosophy shapes our students’ lives from the early years to graduation and serves as the driving force behind our interdisciplinary approach to education, nurturing well-rounded achievers who understand the joy of finding something new to love. True to Tower Hill is the result of an 18-month long process of discernment, discussion, drafting, feedback and responsive editing by the Strategic Planning Committee and many interested members of the community. The plan was endorsed by the Board of Trustees on Dec. 8, 2023. We thank all those who gave their time and talent as this plan took shape, and we turn our eyes with anticipation toward making this plan a reality, where connections are cultivated, culture is rooted in belonging and students excel in whatever they choose to do. True to Tower Hill,
Sarah Baker Head of School
Ben duPont Board Chair
MULTA BENE FACTA
Our motto, Multa Bene Facta, or Many Things Done Well, isn’t just
a nice turn of phrase. It’s a philosophy about commitment, hard work, multi-faceted learning and, yes, achievement.
TOWER HILL IS 1 AN ENGAGED COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS
2 A DESTINATION SCHOOL
3 A SHARED SCHOOLHOUSE
1 An Engaged Community of Scholars
WE BELIEVE
Tower Hill’s tradition of academic excellence delivers an extraordinary liberal arts education within a highly relational scholarly community and prepares students to excel at the next stage and beyond. We believe that it is the school’s responsibility to engage the mind and heart of each student and each teacher, contemplating and nurturing individual interests, talents and intellectual journeys, cultivating active and thriving growth mindsets and establishing the bedrock for lives of learning.
WE WILL
Invest in true scholarship by:
Designing an organizational structure that facilitates research-based academic strategy and devoting resources toward such programming. Ensuring individualized support for each student’s academic journey, providing academic advising that guides students to their highest potential and fullest articulation of their talents. Prioritizing the cultivation of the skills necessary for all students to engage in original research and to produce scholarly work products. Centering social-emotional learning and cultural competency as curricular foci and cornerstones of an engaged academic community.
Increase the financial and human capital devoted to professional development and teacher education by: Ensuring individualized support for each teacher’s pedagogical growth trajectory. Building a culture in which faculty see Tower Hill as a place to grow as scholars and practitioners. Recognize and optimize the use of the summer for student and faculty growth by: Creating summer academic institutes for students from Tower Hill and beyond. Offering enhanced and increased professional growth opportunities for teachers. Fostering connections with and access to internship opportunities within the alumni and parent communities to develop the individual interests and talents of Tower Hill students.
2 A Destination School
WE BELIEVE
Tower Hill’s commitment to Multa Bene Facta, Many Things Done Well, registers as a compelling philosophy for families and faculty seeking an educational and co-curricular experience that is both broad and deep. We believe that the most talented students and teachers from across the region will be attracted to a school that understands the power of discovery and the symbiotic relationship between exploration and focus.
WE WILL
Make Tower Hill a highly sought destination for families and employees by: Cultivating engaged, compassionate and connected student and faculty staff cultures. Prioritizing the wellness and strength of the whole person. Stewarding the joy of being part of the Tower Hill community. Actively recruit students not only from Wilmington but also beyond, seeking the most talented students from all school contexts by: Broadening the reach of Tower Hill’s Admission arm, increasing the number of applicants overall and from previously unrepresented nearby neighborhoods and zip codes with growing school-aged populations. Making a Tower Hill education possible for the best candidates.
In all hiring practices, actively recruit and retain a peerless faculty and staff by: Exercising creativity in building compensation and benefits packages that make Wilmington and Tower Hill the most attractive choices in the marketplace for the best educators in the field. Building a faculty and staff that is increasingly diverse in identities, backgrounds, work experience and scholarly training.
3 A Shared Schoolhouse
WE BELIEVE
At Tower Hill, students, faculty and staff, families and alumni should see the school as their community, building lasting relationships and feeling true and enduring senses of belonging. We believe in the power of children—Tots through 12— learning and collaborating in a shared schoolhouse; the protective force of intergenerational communities; and the power of feeling true ownership of and deep investment in a place, its mission, its people and its future.
WE WILL
Use campus spaces and programming to reflect a commitment to inclusion, cross-divisional interaction, community and connection by: Increasing and enhancing opportunities for students to build relationships across grade levels and divisions, encouraging mentorship and cultivating leadership skills. Increasing and enhancing opportunities for parents to build relationships with each other and the school, centering the school as a place for parent connection, learning and peer mentorship in the journey of parenting.
Foster senses of ownership and belonging in the community by: Embracing and evolving traditions which foster school pride and connection within and between student, faculty and staff, family and alumni populations. Amplifying and valuing all voices in the schoolhouse in creating and defining school culture.
Strategic Planning Committee Participants Genelle Trader ’70 — Trustee, Co-Chair
Olivia Jordan ’24 — Student
Michelle Shepherd P’20, ’22 — Former Board Chair, Co-Chair
Melinda Martin P’26 — Faculty
Sarah Baker P’36 — Head of School
Rodney Morrison P’22, ’23 — Parent
Lindsay Acevedo ’95, P’33, ’34 — Faculty Suzanne Ashley P’27, ’29, ’31 — Trustee Amy Bickhart P’08 — Faculty Leyna Bidic ’23 — Student Marty Coyne ’23 — Student Dr. Amy Cuddy P’20, ’22 — Faculty Keelan Donnelly ’24 — Student Ben duPont ’82, P’20, ’24 — Board Chair Molly Elton P’28, ’31 — Faculty Tara Fletcher P’36 — Faculty John Gavenonis P’29, ’33 — Trustee Andrea Glowatz — Faculty Josephine Harrington ’99, P’31, ’35 — Staff Cameron Haskins ’23 — Student Laird Hayward ’02 — Trustee Zoë Heifetz ’24 — Student Aili Inguito ’24 — Student Eric Johnson P’16, ’18 — Trustee
Will Miller ’23 — Student Kristin Mumford P’24, ’27 — Staff Dr. Natasha Murray-Everett — Faculty Dr. Harry Neilson — Faculty Eric Norman — Staff Logan Read ’10 — Trustee Amy Schrei P’29 — Staff Sonal Sheppard P’28, ’28 — Trustee Eduardo Silva — Faculty Ken Simpler P’15, ’18, ’21 — Trustee Will Sommers ’24 — Student Mary Taylor ’09, P’37 — Faculty Isabella Timon ’92, P’20, ’21, ’24, ’26 — Trustee Gina Ward P’15, ’17, ’19— Trustee Tim Weymouth P’27 — Faculty
Tower Hill School 2813 W. 17th Street Wilmington, DE 19806 302-575-0550