The Path Ahead: Choate Rosemary Hall's 2021 Strategic Plan

Members of the Choate Rosemary Hall Community,

We as a School pride ourselves on who we are – a community committed to integrity, respect, and compassion. We also know that our identity cannot be defined by these words alone – it must be supported by the actions we take each day, both as individuals and as an institution.

Choate Rosemary Hall’s 2021 Strategic Plan seeks to do precisely that: to unify our commitments with our actions. Through 2019 and into the start of 2020, we, along with the Board of Trustees and senior administrators, met with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents, seeking far-reaching ideas regarding Choate’s current direction and reflecting upon how we as an institution need to adapt in order to benefit all of our constituents. Through these discussions and past planning processes, we have learned that a good strategic plan is so much more than a checklist – it is a focused, thoughtful, and succinct way to streamline institutional priorities while giving us the flexibility to evolve, improve, and do the things we do well even better. It allows us to make decisions that honor our values. It does not redefine who we are, but instead, allows us to find better ways of embracing the best of ourselves and our community.

Through the 2021 Strategic Plan, we strive to solidify Choate as a place of action, innovation, and collaboration. We will share more information about a comprehensive fundraising campaign to support our strategic initiatives in the next 12 months. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing these goals guide us into new projects, new strategies, and new commitments as the future unfolds.

Sincerely,

Alex D. Curtis, Head of Schol

George F. Colony '72, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Where We Started

In 2012, Choate Rosemary Hall initiated the first community-wide strategic planning process in 20 years, and in 2013 began implementation of its new comprehensive Strategic Plan. This reflective, forward-thinking document set the stage for the next seven years of visionary evolution in four major areas of School operations: Cohesion and Culture; Teaching and Learning; Enrollment and Student Outcomes; and Communication and Outreach.

These four initiatives provided the entire community with a shared roadmap of common goals. During the seven-year implementation cycle, the School realized all of these goals, which resulted in, among many other initiatives:

- Adopting the Statement of Expectations

- Reviewing and developing of the Central Qualities of a Choate Education

- Establishing the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the Office of Institutional Research

- Designing, constructing, and opening of St. John Hall student center and Colony Hall

- Expanding of the iPad program

- Adding two additional Signature Programs, in robotics and government and public service

- Coordinating outreach and recruitment efforts for the Admission Office

- Celebrating of the School’s 125th year

After meeting all of the 2013 benchmark goals, the School began the process again in 2020, reflecting on Choate’s strengths and challenges while honing in on the goals and initiatives that will carry us through our next Strategic Plan.

The Process

The first phase of developing a new Strategic Plan called for deep internal reflection, not only of the School’s achievements, but of its values. This process was led by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, headed by trustees Caroline Brown ’86, P ’19 and Jim Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10. The Committee turned to the community for guidance, getting input from 27 focus groups comprising faculty, staff, student, parent, and alumni, along with constituent surveys and departmental evaluations. Choate also benchmarked itself against peer schools and performed institutional, industry and trend research for additional context and inspiration.

Equipped with research, analysis, and constituent feedback, the Committee led a group of 60 individuals – Trustees, faculty, staff, and students – through a two-day planning retreat in January 2020. Through small group discussions, plenary presentations, and casual conversations, a list of common priorities and themes central to the Choate experience began to emerge.

Charged by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee and inspired by the retreat, an on-campus writing committee then set out to bring structure and organization to the big ideas, producing a first draft of a new plan that they then turned over to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. When the campus closed in March of 2020 in response to the pandemic, Strategic Planning, like so much else, went remote. Delayed but not deterred, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee presented a final draft of its plan to the on-campus community this spring; and in April, the Board of Trustees adopted the new Strategic Plan.

A detailed implementation plan was developed in June, and implementation itself began on July 1. The Board of Trustees will review implementation progress annually throughout the life of the plan, with periodic updates shared more broadly with the School community.

Informed by the foundational mission of the School, and in response to and recognition of the evolving conditions around us, the 2021 Choate Rosemary Hall Strategic Plan challenges us to strengthen our core, advance our culture, and stride into the future.

Where Do We Go Next?

With each new Strategic Plan, the School has the opportunity to ask, where do we go next? How do we continue to grow? How do we leverage the strides we’ve already taken and ensure that we set goals that help move the School forward?

The key to a successful implementation is a commitment to tracking progress, allocating resources, and dedicating time during each busy school year to focus on our stated goals.

When a Strategic Plan is embraced and prioritized, it becomes part of the fabric of the community’s work together. Much of the groundwork for the new plan has been laid, and work has already begun. The 2021 Strategic Plan gives voice to an institutional commitment for Choate to build upon its mission, prepare for the future thoughtfully and intentionally, and utilize its current strength and spirit to succeed.

The Choate Rosemary Hall 2021 Strategic Plan

Strengthen Our Core

We will build on our tradition of providing transformational academic and extracurricular student experiences by continuously adopting new ways of teaching and learning.

Implementation

- Drive excellence in our faculty and staff by embracing innovative approaches and techniques.

- Build a curriculum that emphasizes collaborative and cross-disciplinary methods.

- Maximize learning opportunities in athletics, the arts, residential life, and all community endeavors.

- Promote inquiring and respectful discourse, made richer by the different experiences around us.

Advance Our Culture

We will develop good character in our students and promote respect for equity and fairness, responsible citizenship, wellness, and an innovative and positive approach to the future.

Implementation

- Use core School documents to set community-wide expectations and accountability.

- Enhance current equity and inclusion initiatives by developing new community-wide programs to support our goals.

- Strengthen services and programming to support the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health of our community.

- Become an acknowledged secondary school leader in environmental sustainability by operating with a reduced carbon footprint and creating a climate change solutions curriculum.

Stride Into the Future

We will better society through the contributions of students we graduate into the world.

Implementation

- Educate our students in the skills, knowledge, and technology needed to thrive beyond the classroom and their time at Choate.

- Support our faculty and staff to deliver exceptional education through the Choate experience.

- Grow the endowment to support affordable tuition, need-based scholarships, an excellent faculty and staff, and a viable, long-term business model for the School.

- Create, expand, and promote opportunities for our alumni to engage with current students and their fellow alumni and participate in the ongoing Choate experience.

- Secure streams of revenue beyond tuition, leveraging Choate’s physical and intellectual assets.

A special thanks to the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees, administration, writing contributors, strategic planning retreat participants, and School community members who took time to participate in this important process.

Strategic Planning Steering Committee

Caroline T. Brown ’86, P ’19

Alison J. Cady P ’23 Chief Communications Officer

George F. Colony ’72 Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20 Head of School

James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10

Corey Wrinn Director of Institutional Research