Strategic Planning Days to Continue in Winter
The next leg of faculty strategic planning sessions is underway next week, with a special schedule on Friday, Jan. 23 and with a focus on creativity and the collaborative process. During fall term, students were given two Wednesdays off for faculty strategic planning meetings, and another Wednesday “no school” session is planned for Feb. 4.
The Jan. 23 session will take place from 10:25 a.m. to 1:25 p.m., but all scheduled classes after B format will be held in the afternoon, minus fat blocks.
The strategic planning process began during the summer of 2014 when the Academy faculty were sent surveys with questions regarding the teaching philosophy of Exeter and its implementation. The scope of the Strategic plan shifted when Principal Tom Hassan announced his retirement in late June.
The planning committee convened prior to the start of the school year to answer the question of “goodness” cited in the Academy’s deed of gift. According to the progress report, the teachers aimed to discuss “specific actions such as service and behavior” that members of the community could perform.
After emailing the survey, the strategic planning committee planned several events to help facilitate conversations among the faculty. Teachers held a panel discussion on goodness in early October and later heard from educational researcher Zak Stein on the topic of moral and ethical development.
“A popular view is that the Academy is not offering sufficient support in meeting our academic standards, including the ability to participate at the Harkness table.”
The faculty transitioned from discussions on “goodness” to Harkness and its impact on the school. After Stein’s talk, the committee discussed the academic support given to different learning styles. Despite a difference in opinion within the faculty, a popular view is that the Academy is “not offering sufficient support in meeting our academic standards, including the ability to participate at the Harkness table.” The findings of the meetings were presented in a four page, Long Range Strategic Planning progress report.
In spite of the ongoing discussions about strategic planning among faculty, some students do not feel informed on the reasons why these discussions are being held.
When asked about the current actions of the strategic planning committee, upper Moonlan Zhang pointed out that there has been little to no mention of it in the community. “I mean I know the Wednesdays are for teachers and administrators to meet, but I don’t know what for,” she said.
“A popular view is that the Academy is not offering sufficient support in meeting our academic standards, including the ability to participate at the Harkness table.”
Zhang believes that there is room for improvement in the way strategic planning is communicated towards the students, arguing that “they should let students who are interested be part of the discussion. The principal search surprised me with the number of students that turned up, for instance.” Zhang drew parallels with the heavy student involvement in other aspects of development at the Academy, believing that strategic planning should also feature more student voices.
This lack of inclusion seems to be a common sentiment among students. Lower Bokyoung Kim noted that although she has heard of the term strategic planning from “faculty and word around campus,” she is not familiar with what it actually means. “The last time we had it, everyone was confused as to why we were having just a random day off. I know what strategic planning meant in the literal sense, but I wasn’t sure of what the intention or purpose was behind it.”
Kim also agrees with Zhang in the benefit of including student voices in the planning discussion, asserting that “the students are the ones involved in the learning.” Kim believes that they are the ones who “know the problems and issues in the system” and could provide valuable opinions, especially when “helping the teachers in acknowledging these issues and finding direct ways of fixing them.”
Despite the lack of information, most students viewed the concept of strategic planning—upon further explanation—in a positive light.
Upper Martin Muñoz remarked that “it is important for any institution to stay with the times.” He believes that planning in the long term “is valuable for any school,” and “merits the faculty spending additional time towards discussion.”
Other students, however, expressed their doubts on the effectivity of strategic planning. While prep Anzi Debenedetto agreed with Muñoz on the importance of looking towards the long term, he questioned the influence it will have on students. “I’m not sure if I'll see too much of it in my stay here, because I get the feeling that things don’t change fast around here.” While it will ultimately help the development of the Academy, “it will take some time,” Debenedetto said.
Many students greeted this years strategic planning focus—imbuing “goodness” into the community—with skepticism. Most regarded the idea as being too general; this topic of discussion was discredited by Zhang as being “very idealistic.” She questioned if the free days “actually lead to any concrete plans of action to develop goodness in this community.” Zhang’s explanation for this was that “[goodness] should be an ultimate goal, but there should be concrete steps leading up to it rather than this whole big idea.” But if anything can lead to a productive discussion of “goodness,” “that’s what the strategic planning’s for.”
Regardless of how soon the impact of strategic planning can be seen at the Academy, students can be assured that the time on Wednesdays is set aside for a beneficial cause. With improvements in communication and the possible inclusion of student voices in future discussions, two aspects students see for improvement, they have hope that strategic planning will prove to be productive in addressing the long term issues the Academy faces.
Contributions from Annie Ning