Pictured above: Students coloring together on the floor during the potluck Contra dance kick off to our Strategic Plan. It was an evening of good food, conversation, and something for everyone!
In January, we had a celebratory potluck Contra Dance to kick off our Strategic Plan. I was introduced to the magic of the FSP potluck, where the quantity, variety, and pacing of foods not just works out but massively delights!
It has been a while since FSP has hosted a potluck or contra dance, though I had heard about the "old days" of Outing Club potlucks and Harvest Fests. It was a delight that Maggie who has called at many of these FSP events was able to join us with a band. Our former head of school James Grumbach, Pam Grumbach, and former board member, Sam Solish, pulled up benches and instruments to join in. The room was full of friends who know FSP from all our years!
Afterwards, a middle schooler said: “Me and my mom used to contra dance when I was little, so it reminds me of when I was younger.” Our office manager Jenni shared: “It was my first Contra Dance! There was a lot of energy in the room.”
The potluck and contra dance was paired with the launching of our new five-year Strategic Plan. Board members took time after finishing up dinner to share our three visions, the initiatives already in progress, and the work on the horizon.
Here are our three visions for the next five years, with the corresponding snapshots of the ways these visions have been “operationalized” into initiatives in progress during Year 1:
We will nurture and invest in a diverse community, where each person is valued, cared for, and belongs.
We will spend the next 3-5 years sending every teacher in the building to the Responsive Classroom training, our school-wide approach to advisory and social-emotional behavioral learning.
With the support of a grant this year, our Quaker Life Committee is writing and self-publishing a Faith and Practice booklet which will provide guidance internally about the ways Quakerism supports and informs our practices.
With the support of a grant from the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund, we have joined up with a consultant who will lead us in a community-wide Equity Audit in the 2024-25 school year. Our equity audit will be a collaborative self-study that will leave us with new tools and new answers to the question: What will FSP be willing to do in order to achieve new outcomes?
We will strengthen our inquiry-based, community-engaged program so that our students are prepared to enter the world with confidence, competence, joy, and a sense of purpose.
In formalizing our commitment to overnight trips in grades 3-8, we are in the process of building the role of trip coordinator and developing further trip leadership guidance for our faculty.
Inquiry will be our professional development focus for the 24-25 school year.
This summer, Eliza Robinson will work on systematizing our After School offerings.
We will prepare for the future with a sustainable financial model, consistent with our Quaker values of integrity, truth, equality, peace, community, and simplicity.
We are convening an investment committee, tasked with creating investment policies and reviewing them at appropriate and regular intervals; reviewing our investments; and making recommendations to the board in January and June about the growth and sustainability of our endowment.
An ad hoc committee is finalizing the job description for a part-time facilities role
We committed to hosting our annual parent pledge drive in the Fall instead of the Spring.
A strategic plan is not a checklist; it is a direction. We are grateful for the vision and voices that have contributed to the initial planning process, the continued inquiry process, and the operationalizing of our plan. We continue to call on our strong community to keep us moving forward.