Strategic Plan: 2011-2015

Strategic Plan2011-2015

CHARLOTTE PREPARATORY SCHOOL

© 2011 Charlotte Preparatory School

Mission StatementCharlotte Preparatory School

provides an extraordinary educational experience

founded on academic excellence,

character development and leadership

in a culturally diverse community.


Table of ContentsCore Values ....................................................................................................................................2

Letter from Head of School and Advisory Board Chairman .......................................................3

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................4

2011-2015 Vision Statement ..........................................................................................................6

The Goals ......................................................................................................................................7

Strategies and Tactics ....................................................................................................................8

Strategic Planning Timeline ........................................................................................................14

Reflections ...................................................................................................................................15


Core ValuesACADEMIC EXCELLENCECharlotte Preparatory School strives to offer its community the best academic program available, through the careful choice of curricula, materials and faculty.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTThe understanding and exercise of respect, integrity, courage and perseverance are key to a child’s social development and an adult’s personal success. Therefore these pillars are central to our program and life in our community.

LEADERSHIPEffective leadership requires specific competencies and skill sets. The Charlotte Prep program teaches these proficiencies in specific leadership curricula and develops them with ongoing opportunities in each classroom every day.

MULTICULTURALISMCharlotte Preparatory School embraces multiculturalism in its curricula and in its community as a vital element of human understanding.

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Letter from the Head of School and the Advisory Board Chairman

Fall 2011

Dear Charlotte Preparatory School Community,

Over the past year and a half, members from all corners of the Charlotte Prep community have shared their wisdom, creativity and time to plan the next steps in the school’s development. This, Charlotte Preparatory School’s 2011-2015 Strategic Plan, reflects the vision, priorities and ideas of the school’s constituencies, which they shared over a series of formal and informal meetings. Poignantly, amidst the discussions of curriculum and preparation, nearly every discussion included the sentiment that Charlotte Preparatory School not only fulfulls its mission, but that the school offers its students and their families a unique culture where each child is known well and understood as an individual.

The new Strategic Plan embraces nine goals that will guide Charlotte Prep for the next five years, as the school re-emphasizes its focus on preparing students for life in a rapidly changing world.

Thank you for your part in helping us craft this plan, and thank you for your role in creating our community.

Sincerely,

Annmarie Torres Robert JonesHead of School Chairman, Advisory Board


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IntroductionFor many of Charlotte Preparatory School’s students, the world into which they were born is already significantly different from the world we experience today. For example, we can simply compare the announcements of their births: More than a decade ago, tech-savvy parents may have owned a digital camera, and once they arrived home from the hospital, they emailed large photo files to their friends over a dial-up Internet connection. New grandparents may not have had email access and learned about the birth over their landline phones. Less technologically adept parents simply snapped photos with their film cameras and mailed the prints.

By contrast, an enormous circle of friends, colleagues, acquaintances and distant relatives learned about the births of our Early School students nearly instantly through social media postings of delivery room photos – taken on and uploaded from smart phones.

The technological and communication changes of that one decade are small compared to the evolutions today’s students will experience in their lifetimes. They will witness – and participate in – the most dramatic paradigm shifts in history, triggered by swift currents in arenas like technological innovation, global economic dynamics, geo-political influences, energy sourcing and biotechnology.


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Our students will move around the globe in the same way their parents move around the country. Their home and work environments will incorporate artificial intelligence and holographic experiences. Their professional opportunities will arise in industries that do not yet exist, and their leadership challenges will carry heavy consequences. The skill sets they will need for personal and professional success over their extended lifetimes emphasize flexibility, problem-solving, collaboration, cultural literacy, and the ability to find and synthesize information, rather than the ability to accumulate knowledge.

It is with these insights that the administrators, faculty, Board of Advisors and parents of Charlotte Preparatory School set out to create the school’s 2011-2015 Strategic Plan.


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Vision StatementCharlotte Preparatory School

is committed to providing each student

with exceptional

academic and social preparation

for personal, professional and leadership success

in the 21st century’s rapidly changing, global environment.


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The GoalsCharlotte Preparatory School’s 2011-2015 Strategic Plan was created to achieve the following goals,

while always respecting the school’s long-term financial sustainability:

1. Establish Charlotte Preparatory School as a model of 21st Century Learning.

2. Continue advancing academic excellence in the school’s core curriculum.

3. Build upon Charlotte Preparatory School’s tradition of multiculturalism to deepen students’ global

awareness, cultural literacy and language studies.

4. Renew the commitment to character development that is at the heart of a Charlotte Prep

education, by further promoting our Pillars of Leadership, service learning and teambuilding.

5. Recognize each child’s gifts and nourish every student’s individual potential.

6. Cultivate our students’ collaborative problem-solving skills.

7. Foster a culture that supports the school’s core values.

8. Embrace all community constituents to ensure their continued engagement and support.

9. Clearly communicate the benefits of the pre-K through 8th grade model within our own

community, and to prospective families in the Charlotte area.


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Strategies and TacticsSUPPORTING TACTICS

• Team with another school to advance a “Big Question” each year and engage every grade level with developmentally appropriate, collaborative, exploratory and problem-solving activities throughout the year.

• Initiate summer in-depth learning sessions to deepen comprehension and reduce summer learning loss.

• Continue the annual Inventors’ Fair and expand the inventor program to include after-school studios and summer camps.

• Supplement Saxon Math curriculum with lessons from online sources.• Continue Continental Mathematics League. • Integrate current events discussions into classes at every grade level.• Continue faculty peer mentoring with the Comprehension Toolkit

and similar resources to enhance student reading comprehension and higher-level thinking skills.

• Expand upon the advisory program to bring peer relations discussions into the Lower School classrooms after playground time as a foundation for problem-solving.

STRATEGY 1

Increase emphasis on higher-order thinking activities to expand

students’ problem-solving skills, encourage divergent

thinking, and promote multiple intelligences.


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STRATEGY 2

Amplify students’ use of technology to enrich curriculum content, enhance curriculum

delivery, teach protocols for virtual working, and initiate its seamless integration into students’ lifelong learning.

SUPPORTING TACTICS

• Incorporate laptop computers into the fourth and fifth grade curricula, and into one successive grade level each year thereafter. (By 2015-2016, fourth through eighth grade curricula will be laptop-based.)

• Continue to add SMART Boards in Lower School and Middle School classrooms.

• Add one online course to Middle School curriculum.• Implement SmartMusic interactive software to enhance the Middle

School band program.• Utilize Skype to work with students in other schools on Big

Question activities and to gain exposure to other cultures and perspectives.

• Realign the Middle School technology curriculum to include digital audio/visual projects that supplement and enhance content studies in other disciplines.

• Enhance educational outreach and influence through digital media created by faculty and students, like blogs, glogs, vlogs and podcasts.

Strategies and Tactics


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STRATEGY 3

Incorporate STEM disciplines

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) more fully into content

studies at all grade levels.

SUPPORTING TACTICS

• Establish a STEM specialist position to help faculty incorporate STEM lessons into content studies at all grade levels.

• Introduce STEM-based after-school studios, summer camps and electives.

• Investigate faculty development opportunities through resources such as the Siemens STEM Academy.

• Expand participation in STEM-based competitions like Science Olympiad and First LEGO League Robotics Competition.



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STRATEGY 4

Increase opportunities for students and faculty to develop and exercise

leadership skills.

SUPPORTING TACTICS

• Increase public speaking opportunities for all grade levels by integrating cross-classroom student presentations.

• Continue to build sportsmanship opportunities and life skills through the Charlotte Preparatory School athletic program, with initiatives like the new 3-on-3 CPS Basketball Tournament.

• Continue to prioritize and enhance the inter-divisional BUD-E program.• Expand community service projects and servant leadership

opportunities that are designed by and led by students.• Encourage faculty to become master teachers and peer mentors,

creating opportunities for them to share their areas of interest and expertise with colleagues.

• Amplify the teaching of civility and graciousness to help students appreciate the importance of etiquette and other nonverbal communications in effective interpersonal relationships.



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STRATEGY 5

Build Charlotte Prep’s excellent Spanish language

and multicultural programs to expand

students’ communication skills and global

awareness.

SUPPORTING TACTICS

• Continue to enhance delivery of the Spanish curriculum.• Utilize Skype to build foreign language conversation skills and

multicultural awareness.• Continue to develop language offerings via the after-school studio

program.• Consider online language classes.• Further enhance the community’s understanding and respect for

other cultures through Charlotte Prep’s multicultural program, visiting presenters in the classroom, and the Core Knowledge® Sequence.



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STRATEGY 6

Refine and advance Charlotte Preparatory

School’s brand to achieve greater awareness and

preference on the local and regional levels, thus

enhancing retention and increasing enrollment.

SUPPORTING TACTICS

• Determine the institution’s key benefit -- the one word or phrase that should be instantly associated with Charlotte Preparatory School.

• Help all constituents develop “elevator speeches” to convey the Charlotte Prep marketing message.

• Promote the pre-K-8 model more aggressively with internal and external audiences.

• Consider implementing a school uniform program to increase awareness and recognition of the school off-campus.



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Strategic Planning Timeline

January 2011

Full FacultyStrategic Planning

Visioning with Board of Advisors

Visioning with

Full Faculty

Visioning withParent Association

Board

Communications Coffees with

Parents

October 2010

November 2010

Parent Survey

NC Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS)

Biannual Conference (All faculty)

Parent Survey

School Administration

Retreat

June 2009

K-8 Faculty Meetings

School

Adminstration Strategic Planning

Retreat

Board of AdvisorsMarketing Committee

Working Meeting

Technology Committee

Strategic Planning

March 2011


Strategic PlanningMeeting

December 2010

Board of AdvisorsWorking Meeting

Board of AdvisorsMarketing Committee

Working Meeting


Strategic Planning Retreat

May 2011

June 2010

Parent Survey

Faculty Survey


Retreat

June 2011

K-8 Faculty Meetings

School

Adminstration RefiningMeetings

April2011

Board of AdvisorsStrategic Plan

Feedback Meeting

Final Faculty Review

August 2011

September 2011

Final Advisory Board

Review


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ReflectionsThe constituents of Charlotte Preparatory School crafted the 2011-2015 Strategic Plan with a specific priority at the heart of their work: Tendering a child-centered approach to best prepare each individual student for a successful personal and professional life in the 21st Century.

As the Strategic Plan took shape, the school’s parent Board of Advisors developed the set of reflections listed below. These questions provided valuable tools for shaping refinements to the final edition, and they will be critical touchstones as the Charlotte Preparatory School community reaches for, and attains, the Plan’s goals over the next five years.

• Is our learning active, meaningful and useful?• Are we preparing children for their futures in a global society?• How are we preparing Charlotte Preparatory School students to be attractive

candidates and successful students at the upper school and college levels?• How are we investing in our faculty and staff to ensure that they are inspired

and engaged?• Are all of our goals relevant, achievable and under constant review?• Are our strategic and daily decisions in line with our core values?• How are we refining our plans as the future unfolds?


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212 Boyce RoadCharlotte, NC 28211

704.366.5994www.charlotteprep.com

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Strategic Plan: 2011-2015