Foundations for the Future

Tradition, Innovation, Excellence

The Strategic Plan for Friends School of Baltimore

Foundations for the Future

Tradition, Innovation, Excellence

The Strategic Plan for Friends School of Baltimore

FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

T he Socie ty of Friends of Baltimore founded Friends School in 1784 to provide a Guarded Education to Quaker children. Through its long history, our School has pursued its mission, all the while embracing the dual challenge of sustaining our core Quaker beliefs and actively participating in the wider society. Today we continue that journey by introducing this Strategic Plan,

Foundations for the Future.

FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

Evolving from a yearlong process of gathering and evaluating information and listening to the hopes and concerns of hundreds of our constituents, the Strategic Plan reflects a shared belief that the combination of our Quaker traditions and our innovative spirit positions us ideally to meet the challenges of our changing times. Our aspirations for the future of Friends School include:
Developing 21st Century Citizens

Friends will nurture in each student the spiritual, intellectual, physical and creative strengths to make a positive contribution to our complex and changing world.
Amplifying Our Impact

Friends will realize our most fundamental values and our guiding mission by forging transformative relationships beyond the boundaries of our campus. Through our actions, we will widen and deepen the understanding of our unique identity within our own community and in the region at large.
Sustaining Our Vision

Friends will provide the resources to achieve and sustain our goals, in order to offer the life-changing experience of a Friends education to future generations.
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FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Developing 21st Century Citizens

Chapter 1

Friends School believes that the impact our students have in the world is the ultimate measure of our performance. Like many schools, we strive for academic excellence, emphasize the importance of spiritual and physical growth, and nurture and guide the creative energy of our students. At Friends, though, we also assume a greater responsibility. We distinguish ourselves and keep faith with our Quaker heritage by preparing each child to carry his or her learning forward into the community.

FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

1.
Our academic program and School activities must develop in our students the skills, talents and habits of mind necessary to successfully engage their communities and assume leadership roles. To achieve these objectives, we must have an extraordinary faculty, administration and staff who are mindful of their responsibility to serve as both teacher and guide, as well as a School community composed of a rich mixture of cultures and ethnicities, learning together and from each other, in a truly inclusive educational environment. We have set three goals that will move us toward this vision: We will vigorously and continuously review our academic and co-curricular programs to ensure that our students are developing the skills and values they will require to thrive inand ultimately shape the world they encounter beyond Friends School.

2.
We will attract, develop and retain a talented and committed faculty, administration and staff who will reflect the diversity of the world in which we live.

3.
We will continue to work toward a student body whose composition fully mirrors the ethnic, racial, and economic variety of the wider community, and we will rededicate ourselves to ensuring that all our daily interac tions help to create a community defined by understanding and inclusion.

FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Amplifying Our Impact

Chapter 2

At Friends School, we believe that the Quaker tradition of letting our lives speak challenges us to make a distinctive impact in the world by actively living out our fundamental values. While in its earliest days Friends was composed entirely of Quaker families, Quakers are now just a small minority of our students, faculty, staff and administration. We recognize and embrace the challenges that accompany this shift, and we know that we must work with diligence and purpose to remain true to the ideals on which our School was founded.

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FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

1.
If we are to live out our values, all members of our community must have a deep understanding of Quaker philosophy the kind of understanding that can arise only from the direct and ongoing experience of Quakerism in practice. We have developed three initiatives that will enable us to attain this goal: We will create a program to allow and encourage our students, our families, and our staff to regularly explore and experience the Quaker tenets.

2.
We will develop a series of outreach programs that build upon our core values and amplify our impact within the broader community.

3.
We will enhance the ways in which we communicate our unique identity, principles, and practices within and beyond the Friends School community.

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FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Sustaining Our Vision

Chapter 3

The 1,000 students enrolled at Friends School are heirs to the legacy established by the 14 students who first attended Friends in 1784. As each generation assumes the responsibility and privilege of stewardship and strives anew to make a distinctive impact, they know that the promise of the future rests on the foundation they create. Our rich legacy and tradition bestow on us the obligation to pass along to succeeding generations the transforming experience of a Friends School education.

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FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

1.
The viability of our vision of a community of extraordinary adults nurturing a diverse and inclusive student body will be determined by our willingness and ability to secure the necessary resources. That fact was true in 1784 when Friends Schools first teacher, Joseph Townsend, earned $40 per quarter, and it remains true today. We have adopted three strategies that will secure this future state: We will fund the efforts necessary to assemble an outstanding staff and establish ourselves as the employer of choice among regional independent schools.

2.
We will raise the money needed to support greater economic diversity in our student population.

3.
We will enrich all aspects of our students experiences by ensuring that the Schools grounds and facilities reflect and reinforce the quality of the education our students receive and the ambition of our aspirations.

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The Next Steps

The broad participation of our School community in gathering information for the Strategic Plan gives us great confidence in their continued support as we execute the plan. This next stage of the process will involve a number of Task Forces formed to focus on these action stepsand will begin in the fall of 2007:

FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Developing 21st Century Citizens Assess the work environment at Friends School Develop a Best Practices Employee Attraction and Retention Program Implement a recruiting outreach program Study the academic and co-curricular programs, developing detailed plans for improvements Review all student support services, providing specific recommendations for any necessary changes Develop a comprehensive diversity plan Establish a standing Diversity Committee of the Board of Trustees Increase significantly the number of people of color on our faculty Increase student diversity Amplifying Our Impact Develop a program in Quaker principles and practices Design and implement community outreach programs Execute a comprehensive marketing campaign Sustaining Our Vision Increase our endowment by $10,000,000 Conduct a $15,000,000 Capital Campaign and complete the campus development described in the Master Plan Develop plans to increase our annual revenue by $100,000 Complete all necessary renovations of campus facilities

Strategic Planning Committee of the Friends School Board of Trustees

Bill Smillie
Clerk

Bob Heaton 56 Mindy Klausner Howard Loewenberg Matt Micciche

Head of School

Sue Carnell Alison Fass 77 Wallace Gatewood Ali Gilbert 07 Deb Haag Katie Hearn 81

Gerry Mullan Dorothy Powe Mark Stromdahl

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FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE

For a copy of the complete Strategic Plan, for periodic updates on the status of the plan, or for information about becoming involved with a Task Force, visit our website at www.friendsbalt.org or contact Greta Rutstein, the Director of Academic Administration, at 410-649-3263.

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Friends
School of Baltimore 5114 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21210-2096 Telephone: 410-649-3200 Fax: 410-649-3213 www.friendsbalt.org

Commencing Fall 2007