Strategic Planning 2024

Dear ACS Community Members,

We are pleased to provide you with an update on the excellent progress the school is making toward our next Strategic Plan.

Since our last communication, members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, the Board of Trustees, and members of the Senior Leadership Team participated in a consultant-led strategic planning workshop in May. During the workshop, we identified a handful of strategic priorities with an eye toward addressing our most significant opportunities and most urgent needs over the next several years. Our strategic priorities will include the following broad areas:

• Academics (Curriculum Innovation)
• Community
• Impact (Value Proposition)
• Financial Sustainability

Over the summer, small workgroups consisting of participants in the workshop (as well as faculty members) were formed. These workgroups will be meeting several times over the next two months to gather more input around the identified strategic priorities and opportunities. The overall goal is to create action plans with measurable targets and performance indicators that the school will use as a guide in the coming years. So that we may continue to garner parent feedback, we will be holding another series of parent feedback sessions via Zoom, with each one focused on each of the current priorities identified above. Attendance at each session will be capped at 25 participants, and we ask that each household sign up for no more than one session.

1. Academics (Curriculum Innovation) - Wednesday, Sept. 18, 7-8:00pm — Register Here
2. Community - Thursday, Sept. 19, 6:30-7:30pm — Register Here
3. Impact (Value Proposition) - Tuesday, Oct. 1, 7-8:00pm — Register Here
4. Financial Sustainability - Tuesday, Oct. 8, 7-8:00pm — Register Here

We anticipate completing the Strategic Plan by the end of the year, with a public introduction in early 2025. Do not hesitate to reach out to us with any comments, concerns or suggestions via the strategic planning email: strategicplanning@averycoonley.org or via the anonymous feedback option form — Here. 

Sincerely,

Shilpa Gokhale & Jen Reenan

To date, the following steps have been completed:

• Focus Group Participation — We had robust focus group participation from our current parents with over 60 parents participating in seven parent-centered focus groups and also had focus groups with faculty and administrators. Dr. Polly Parker from Independent School management (ISM) presented the focus group findings to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee in early April.
• Survey Collection/Analysis — ISM also reviewed the key findings from the community survey (parents, students and faculty/admin/staff) that was done in November-December with Dr. Montgomery. You can read a summary of the key findings HERE. Other valuable feedback has been collected from a small number of alumni who responded to our call for input. Additionally, the Board was surveyed, and that data will be reviewed and analyzed as well. More recently, we administered the National Association of Independent School's (NAIS) Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM) survey. This survey was designed to evaluate diversity, multiculturalism, equity, and justice in independent schools, and the feedback will be used to help us shape programming as well as inform the strategic plan. 
• External Environment Analysis — A sub-committee group of the Steering Committee compiled and reviewed information from a wide swathe of local public and private schools—including competitive and market data—and presented it to the Steering Committee in early March. This enabled the Steering Committee to get a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing ACS within our local academic landscape. We have also been gathering information on the current trends in gifted education by utilizing committee member and ACS Trustee Dr. Susan Corwith, Director of Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development. Finally, various members of the committee have visited gifted schools across the country, including schools in New York and California, and Michigan.
• Prior Strategic Plan Review — The Board conducted a comprehensive review of the current strategic plan and the Steering Committee has discussed the findings. These conversations have proved helpful in identifying areas of continuing priority as well as the structural components critical to successful implementation of the next strategic plan.

The Steering Committee is gathering these various reports and data in preparation for the Board's strategic planning workshop in May. The goal at that workshop will be to use this information to help prioritize a handful of strategic initiatives with an eye toward addressing our most significant opportunities, most urgent needs, and greatest risks over the next several years. Following this workshop, small workgroups will be formed to gather more input around the identified strategic priorities and opportunities. Additional key stakeholders, including other trustees, other faculty and administration members, and other current parents and alums, will be involved in the workgroup phase. More information will be shared about the workgroups in our next committee communication in early June