KING SCHOOL STRATEGIC PLAN 2020-2025
A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR FUTURE
ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES DECEMBER 17, 2019
Dear King Community,
CLAIMING OUR FUTURE
We are thrilled to present the King School Strategic Plan 2020-2025 – an innovative framework for our future! This plan is informed by the experiences and perspectives of all constituencies – current students, parents, and staffulty, as well as alumni and parents of alumni from all of our founding institutions that were the King, Low Heywood, and Thomas Schools. The plan was developed through the partnership between the Board of Trustees and the Head of School and members of her team, supported by consultant Ian Symmonds and his team. Our shared goal was to articulate a vision for King’s future that would leverage our strengths and successes, and would position us to make strong and courageous choices to best prepare our students for the world they will inherit. First and foremost, we affirm our commitment to the student experience as our top priority. To achieve our bold vision, we strive to be the country’s premier PreK-12 research institution in which students embrace open minds and courageous thinking. Students build mastery as they leverage curiosity; ask excellent questions; engage in experiential learning; and analyze and synthesize information to construct meaning and take action. This approach leads to engaged, healthier students who have a greater sense of purpose; who perform possess superior critical thinking skills; and who are guided by a deep understanding of themselves as learners. The 2020 - 2025 King School Strategic Plan weaves together the imperative of Academic Excellence with – • Athletics and Community Partnerships to enhance it; • Wellness to sustain it; • Strategic Enrollment Management to support it; • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to enrich it; • Financial Sustainability and Facilities Development to fulfill it; and • Institutional Identity to share our pride in who we are. Through this ambitious plan – with its bold educational programs that double down on the student experience – King sets the standard for preparing students for a world that requires nimble, courageous thinkers who own their futures.
Dr. Karen Eshoo Head of School
Tom King President Board of Trustees
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Through King’s Science Program, I stepped into the shoes of a researcher in the real world as an intern at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where I am working to develop a nanoparticle drug delivery system to treat pancreatic cancer. - Wafa N. Upper School
“ ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Academic Excellence is at the heart of achieving our strategic vision. Students will engage meaningfully and collaboratively with project and research-based learning experiences that will enable them to gain a deep understanding across the liberal arts and sciences, while building academic, social-emotional, and leadership skills, and research and digital literacies. King students build foundations of content mastery and self-knowledge that equip them to construct new understandings, to ask the right questions, to innovatively solve complex problems, and to become empathetic leaders of change.
I love exploring concepts through hands-on projects. My class figured out how to create the Grade 4 Probability Carnival for the younger students. Don’t tell anyone — even though they were having fun playing games, we were actually teaching them math! - Gracie H. Lower School student
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We celebrate diversity not to classify each other by race, ethnicity, political persuasion, or gender identification, but to benefit from these differences to build a community that truly embraces the King virtues of integrity, kindness, perseverance, and respect.
We really focus on being accountable for our actions, both on and off the field, and whatever your role on the team, you always give 110% and stay committed and persevere. - Diana D. Upper School student
- Alex K. Alumni University of Pennsylvania
ATHLETICS
We will strengthen the competitiveness and consistency of performance for our athletic programs, particularly in terms of student-athlete leadership, wellness, and commitment, while continuing to support and grow our pool of talented coaches, and raising school spirit and Viking Pride! We will also continue to help launch our most dedicated and successful athletes onward to careers in college and beyond.
WELLNESS
Broadening our focus to the wellness of our whole community of students and adults, we will inspire the development of fulfilled young people who embody a sense of purpose and who maintain wellness and balance.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS We will develop a network of partnerships that enable King students to experience meaningful work in action, and to better understand how collaborative team learning and empathy create positive change in the world.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION Enhancing our culture to ensure we are welcoming of all, we will leverage new approaches to understand the myriad ways community members experience life at King, and respond appropriately to our community members’ needs. King students will be challenged to think critically and consider multiple perspectives and, as a result, will learn more – and more deeply – and will be well prepared to enter a world where they will navigate difference on a daily basis.
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Our student newspaper is important because we get to express our own opinions and we can have a debate about it. I like working as a team and discussing issues on many different topics. - Eddie D. Middle School student
FACILITIES DEVELOPMENT
We envision facilities that will be flexible enough to support new programs, and that will set a better standard for innovative teaching and learning environments. Existing and new spaces on our campus, indoor and outdoor, all offer opportunities to enhance students’ experience, inspiration, and engagement.
STRATEGIC ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT By designing and implementing a long-term, thoughtful enrollment model, we will enrich our diverse student body, provide an inclusive approach to financial access to the best students for King School, and position King for success in our academic programs and our institutional advancement efforts.
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Maintain our commitment to strong financial management, focusing in particular on developing cutting edge practices that will make King compelling and accessible to the best students, developing the best financial models, and continuing to act responsibly in stewarding our resources to sustain King far into the future.
THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY Providing a long-range view of future school priorities, the King School Strategic Plan 2020-2025 is the collective, comprehensive effort of the entire King community. We are grateful for the thoughtful input from our community of parents, trustees, students, staffulty, alumni, and parents of alumni who contributed through surveys (1,000+ responses!, focus groups, and working sessions. We are thankful for the leadership and vision of our Strategic Planning Steering Committee members. In partnership with Ian Symmonds & Associates, a leading firm in the field of strategic planning for educational institutions, our Steering Committee reflected on extensive input from our community plus focused on competitive and educational landscape analysis, SWOT analysis, demographic trends, market segmentation, and trends in the independent school and the education sectors. Tom Conheeney Dr. Karen Eshoo Tom King Nina Newman Dan Ozizmir Ted Parker Marnie Sadlowsky Amy Vorenberg
INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY
Create opportunities to partner with all members of the King community to champion a cohesive, compelling reputation that encapsulates our singular identity and purpose: to provide a truly student-centered, relevant, and dynamic learning experience that best prepares students to thrive in our complex and rapidly changing world.
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We are mathematicians, actors, athletes, writers, artists, debaters, and so much more. We are a family. We are all unique individuals. - Luke B. Alumni New York University
Board of Trustees, P’18, ’15, ’15 Head of School Board of Trustees President, P’23, ’20, ’20 Director of Admission and Financial Access Board of Trustees Second Vice President, P’22, ’18 Associate Head of Upper School, Academic Dean Associate Head of School for Program, Head of Upper School Head of Lower School
The Board of Trustees, Head of School, Leadership Team, staffulty, and indeed our whole community, will continue to partner in the months and years ahead to achieve the bold vision and forward momentum propelled by the King School Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
1450 Newfield Avenue Stamford, CT 06905