A FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN
A framework for decision making
2020-2025
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luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL The sixty years following have produced an incredible legacy with more than 5,300 LuHi graduates entering the world to be compassionate and educated leaders. As a community, we remain motivated to live out our mission to glorify God by educating young people in body, mind, and spirit.
JOHN BUCK HEAD OF SCHOOL
Dear Friends, This year, Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School is celebrating its 60th year as an educational ministry. In the late 1950’s, leaders and pastors from seventeen Lutheran congregations came together to launch a vision for a school to serve the Long Island community.
Throughout its history, the mission of our school has remained consistent, while the world around us continues to change. The field of education looks drastically different than it did even five years ago. Our approach reflects our community’s forward-looking response as we continue to prepare students for the future. In the spring of 2019, Long Island Lutheran’s Board of Directors agreed to engage in a comprehensive strategic planning process to chart a course for our school’s future. A combination of surveys, interviews, focus groups, and research all led up to a two-day strategic planning conference where priorities for the next five years were elevated.
In February of 2020, Shine was approved by LuHi’s Board of Directors. As our team prepared to communicate this plan to the community, COVID-19 swept across New York and caused our entire world to shift its focus. Now that we have successfully reopened school this fall, I am excited to finally share this plan with you. Shine is designed to provide school leadership with a framework for decision making. The title for our plan was inspired by a quote from a LuHi senior during one of the earliest meetings in our planning process. She described LuHi as “a Lighthouse of Love”. Maybe this phrase describes the school you know as well. I thank you for the role you have played in this process and look forward to the future with great hope for what will be to come. God Bless,
WE ARE LUHI
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
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OUR PLAN “Shine” is a strategic plan that accelerates our collective movement and lights the path towards a thriving future. Our vision demonstrates an inclusive, ethical, equitable, and loving approach that unleashes the potential of each individual’s mind, body, and spirit. Since LuHi opened its doors in 1960, we’ve been educating and shaping compassionate, well-rounded young men and women through a Christ-centered, rigorous academic program, and a kind and nurturing community. Today, we have a strong, established culture of extraordinary family — a “Lighthouse of Love.” From here, anything is possible. We are poised in every way to do more and better as we cast our eyes toward the future.
OUR GOALS • Engaging Education • Inspired Spaces • Authentic Storytelling • Sustainable Stewardship
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luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
ENGAGING EDUCATION Design and deliver a broad spectrum of deeply engaging and enriching programs that will engender passion in both students and faculty, giving them deep wells of experience along with the skills to evolve.
Strategies: Transform the LuHi curriculum and program to offer distinctly robust and engaging individualized pathways that allow for student agency, exploration, and discovery.
We will create a distinct and premier educational experience that is reflective of our Christian core values, rooted in the real world, and responsive to each individual.
Recruit, develop, and retain outstanding educators who embody our core values and reflect the diversity of our students.
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
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INSPIRED SPACES Ensure our indoor and outdoor spaces strengthen, communicate, and inspire our commitment to excellence, community building, and the development of mind, body, and spirit. We will develop and execute a campus master plan that strengthens program excellence, generates revenue, increases our value proposition, is costefficient, and exists as a point of differentiation and pride.
Strategies: Develop and implement a campus master plan. Infuse environmental and financial sustainability, and safety into our facilities design and utilization.
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luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
AUTHENTIC STORYTELLING Innovate genuine and impactful ways to tell our story to a wider audience, in a manner that conveys all that is true and special about LuHi. We will capture and communicate what differentiates LuHi from other educational options, share our story to expand and engage our past, present, and future families, and empower our community of supporters to share their own LuHi stories.
Strategies: Share our distinct and premier educational experience through a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy. Ensure our organizational structure supports the collection and sharing of our story. Strategically utilize our strong foundation of wordof-mouth marketing to engage families, increase enrollment, and reach college admissions.
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
luhi.org/about-luhi/strategic-plan
SUSTAINABLE STEWARDSHIP
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Refine our business model, grow enrollment, and activate our community of passionate supporters and potential partners to achieve financial vitality. We will evaluate our tuition structure, grow enrollment, maximize our revenuegenerating opportunities, and create the space, time, and pathways for our community of stakeholders to become stewards of our future.
Strategies: Evaluate enrollment to right-size and optimize revenue streams in domestic, international, and Summer Programs segments. Actively engage our community of parents, alumni, and friends to increase financial support. Refine the business model to generate annual positive cash flow.
SHINE TOGETHER A GLANCE AT OUR PROCESS
6 community forums
The Strategic Visioning Conference was a two-day summit attended by 81
students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni.
15
ALUMNI
interviews
In-depth interviews were conducted with various constituents, including with industry experts.
81
participants
FACULTY/ STAFF
284 78
284 381
PARENTS
STUDENTS
1027
survey responses
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Four focus groups were established to discuss existing challenges and opportunities across key themes.
focus groups