inspiring principled global citizens and lifelong learners through a challenging bilingual education from preschool through eighth grade
Missoula International School
Strategic Plan 2009-2014
Missoula International School 1100 Harrison Street Missoula, MT 59802 www.mismt.org 406.542.9924
MISSION ∙ VISION ∙ VALUES
During the 2007-2008 school year, Missoula International School (MIS) board, administration, and faculty re-envisioned the school’s mission, vision, and values as the first step in strategic planning.
MIS MISSION Missoula International School inspires principled global citizens and lifelong learners through a challenging bilingual education from preschool to eighth grade. MIS VISION We believe our community of learners will impact the world in positive ways as we embrace international friendships, share information and ideas in multiple languages, and forge creative solutions through cross-cultural dialogue.
A Special Thanks to… This strategic plan is the product of innumerable hours of hard work, resourceful thinking and collaboration by many members of the MIS community including faculty and staff, parents, students, and trustees. The board greatly appreciates all the MIS community who provided input to the process, and in particular to those who served on the various committees during each phase. Please do not hesitate to contact the chair of any committee with questions or in seach of additional information. Strategic Planning Task Force BOARD OF TRUSTEES Melissa Bangs Ray Aten nonprofit consultant
Board Sectretary
Martha Cheney
Julie Cahill
Trustee
MIS VALUES
Trustee
Rob Fleming
CREATIVITY
• We value a safe and nurturing environment that promotes freedom of expression and a culture of creativity. • We recognize that the process of inquiry inspires creativity and critical thinking. • We recognize that taking academic and artistic risks develops confidence and nurtures a wellrounded individual.
Martha Cheney
Chair, Parent & Trustee
Trustee
Kay Grissom-Kiely
Rob Fleming
Parent
Parent & Trustee
Jeff Kessler
Rich Lane
director of admissions & IB Coordinator
Parent & Trustee
Julie Lennox
Matt Lunder
Head of School
COOPERATION
• We value an academic culture that nurtures individual responsibility and inspires members to work together and serve the local and global community. • We value the transformation that takes place when members of our community— students, families, faculty, staff, and friends—learn and work together.
Parent & Trustee
Chris Mathers
Betsy Maier
director of Development
Board Treasurer
Sandra Simmons
Nicole Stimac
Parent & Trustee
Parent & Trustee
Doug Webber
Sandra Simmons
Parent & Board President
CONNECTION
Parent & Trustee
Doug Webber
• We value relationships that connect people to each other. • We seek connection with people of diverse perspectives in multiple languages. • We recognize that learning languages connects people across cultural borders and enhances individual capabilities.
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Parent & Board President
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About MIS 1995-2008
creatividad • cooperación • conexión
creativity • cooperation • connection
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Missoula International School (MIS) is a nonprofit, independent school offering a unique educational opportunity for families in Missoula, MT. The school provides an international education in a Spanish language immersion environment. This approach teaches children a second language at an early age and broadens their global vision. Founded as a language immersion preschool in 1995 and housed in a private living room, the school once served only a small group of preschoolers. In 2004, after occupying a series of locations, MIS leased the Missoula County Public School district’s Prescott School in the lower Rattlesnake at the base of Mt. Jumbo. MIS has since grown to serve nearly 150 preschool through middle school students. In 1995 MIS employed four part-time teachers; now the school consists of eighteen faculty members and five administrators who together create a multicultural, multilingual community unique in Missoula. In June of 2009, MIS received formal notification from Geneva, Switzerland of our authorization to provide the Primary Years Programme as an International Baccalaureate World School. MIS is excited to be the first school to represent the US Northwest among primary grade IB World Schools, and to do so under the guidance of this, the school’s first, strategic plan.
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Objective 1 Maintain active partnerships with community organizations that augment the following aspects of the MIS program: • Internationalism • Spanish language development • Classroom experience • Environmental stewardship and social responsibility Objective 2
MIS Strategic Plan 2009-2014
Strategic planning is a systematic, creative, and participatory process through which the leadership of a given organization agrees upon and defines the priorities that are essential to its mission and responsive to the current environment. Strategic planning builds commitment among key stakeholders and guides the acquisition and allocation of resources to achieve these priorities. Definitions of Strategic Planning Vocabulary • • • • •
A Strategic Plan contains a number of core future strategies and a description of longer-term goals and objectives. A Mission Statement is a succinct statement that articulates what the organization does (its programs) and why it does it (the purpose for providing those programs). Vision and Values are the principles that guide and inspire the organization. Strategic Goals are outcome statements that define what an organization hopes to accomplish whether programmatically or organizationally. Goals guide program and management functions. Objectives are precise, measurable, time-phased results that support the achievement of a strategic goal.
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Continue to build positive relationships between the school and the local community. • Create various, intentional, and regular communications of MIS’s successes and challenges. • Enhance communications with the school’s neighbors, partners, and interested community members to better articulate existing programs. • Encourage after hour use of facilities for sports and adult classes.
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community relationships goal
In the next five years, Missoula International School will achieve the following:
community relationships strategic goal
Engage more fully in relationships with the local and global community to enrich the classroom experience for MIS students and enhance the visibility of MIS in the Missoula community.
Missoula International School 1100 Harrison Street Missoula, MT 59802
August 21, 2009 Dear Reader, MIS’s Board of Trustee’s most significant responsibility is to steward the strategic vision and direction for the school’s future. We began the strategic planning process in the fall of 2007 by revising the school’s mission, vision, and values statements to more accurately reflect the many changes the school has experienced since the last mission statement was written in 2003. A new mission, vision, and values provided the board a platform from which to initiate a substantial strategic planning process in the summer of 2008. This strategic plan is the culmination of intensive work by board members, staff, faculty, parents, and other community volunteers. Throughout the process, the Strategic Planning Task Force conducted parent, neighbor, staff, and faculty surveys. We hosted several board and faculty retreats, focus groups and one-on-one interviews throughout the plan’s development. Through these activities, nearly 200 current families, past families, faculty, staff, local community leaders, and neighbors provided input regarding MIS’s strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities. The board and planning volunteers pored over community feedback, current research, and statistical data. We then discussed and distilled the results into six strategic issues designed to ensure a vibrant future for MIS. Strategic Issues: • Educational Excellence • School Culture and Values • Financial Health • Facilities • Leadership • Community Relationships The identification of the strategic goals and the shaping of the specific objectives (Phase I) and the implementation steps to achieve these goals (Phase II) are the result of the many hours of hard work by committees chaired by trustees. Under the leadership of the Head of School, the process of implementation—in essence, Phase III of this process—now begins. This document will inform annual work plans of both board committees and school staff, and together we will monitor the progress and relevance of our goals. This strategic plan will be appropriately dynamic as we progress. Together each of us will bring this document to life over the next five years.
Rob Fleming. Chair MIS STRATEGIC PLAN 2009-2014
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Doug Webber, President
Julie Lennox
MIS Strategic Planning Task Force MIS Board of Trustees Head of School inspiring principled global citizens & lifelong learners through a challeging bilingual education MIS STRATEGIC PLAN 2009-2014
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educational excellence strategic goal
Cultivate lifelong learners and principled global citizens
Objective 1 Produce clear systems of communication between the board, faculty, and administration to facilitate understanding of roles, responsibilities and collaboration. Objective 2 Strengthen the administrative structure to respond to long-term organizational goals. • Increase the professionalism of the school and the school’s business practices by adding the position of Business Manager to the administrative team. • Align the administrative structure with the prioritized organizational goals. • Ensure the facilities plan reflects the projected growth in administrative infrastructure. Objective 3 Foster the board as an effective, dynamic, and engaged group with built-in and ongoing oversight that ensures procedural and structural integrity. • Develop annual goals to guide the board and administrative leadership toward our strategic vision. • Develop a system for periodic review of governance policies to ensure they meet all legal obligations and facilitate the school’s operations according to its mission. • Cultivate board outreach to expertise within the community to inform committee and board deliberation and decision-making. • Expand board outreach to major stakeholders through deliberate conversations and invitations to various MIS events in order to cultivate greater participation in the school’s mission. • Continue to develop the school to attain accreditation by Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools.
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leadership goal
by providing a strong, balanced, and continually evolving academic program that prepares students for the world ahead.
In the next five years, Missoula International School will achieve the following:
The MIS board, administration, and faculty will strategic goal
partner in leadership to implement the school’s mission and guide MIS into the next generation.
Objective 1 Infuse global citizenship attributes and international educational standards throughout the MIS curriculum from preschool to eighth grade. • Strengthen the integration of all facets of the curriculum in the preschool to fifth grade through the framework of the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme. • Strengthen the middle school program and subject area curriculum in the sixth to eighth grades through the framework of the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Programme. • Refine the Spanish language immersion element of the program and ensure continuity into the middle school. • Define and implement a curriculum review process. Objective 2 Expand the global experience for every student and bring the world to the MIS classroom through information and technology resources. • Use technology to enable international collaborations and exchanges and increase diversity in the classroom experience. • Expand the availability of information and technology resources and opportunities to all MIS students. \
Objective 3 Strengthen faculty and staff skills to promote an excellent educational experience for all MIS students. • Enhance professional development opportunities for all faculty and staff members to support the mission and educational goals of MIS. • Increase opportunities for professional collaboration and leadership within the MIS faculty.
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educational excellence goal
leadership
In the next five years, Missoula International School will achieve the following:
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school culture and values
Nurture a school culture that reflects MIS values of strategic goal
creativity, cooperation, and connection and inspires lifelong learning and global citizenship among all members of the MIS community.
In the next five years, Missoula International School will achieve the following:
Objective 2 Work with Missoula County Public Schools to secure the Prescott building for a long term lease or permanent ownership. Objective 3 Create a contingency plan that assesses location and funding in the event the Prescott building is not available for a long term lease or permanent ownership.
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facilities goal
Objective 1 Collaborate with Missoula County Public Schools for the term of the current lease to implement a renovation and maintenance plan for the Prescott building. • Develop a five year facilities plan that responds to the needs of MIS educational program which includes assessment of financing. • Assess what aspects of the facilities plan could be satisfied with volunteer time, in-kind donations, and community partnerships. • Develop a grounds and landscaping plan that improves the playground and green space at the school.
strategic goal
Take steps toward establishing a permanent home
to accommodate the current and future needs of the school’s preschool through eighth grade program.
Objective 1 Increase extent to which the faculty, administration, and board model the IB Learner Profile (caring, balanced, principled, knowledgeable, thinkers, openminded, reflective, communicator, risk-taker and inquirer). • Evaluate annually via surveys, interviews, and anecdotal responses. • Include the profile in evaluation process for board, administration, and faculty. • Celebrate authentic, self-motivated action and global citizenship within the faculty, board, and administration as the school celebrates MIS students’ ongoing action. Objective 2 Foster the value of community and citizenship to enhance our understanding of the diversity in our community and our world. • Define diversity for the MIS community to attract and retain diverse families to our programs. • Measure, communicate, and celebrate MIS’s current diversity. • Expose students to greater human diversity via service learning projects and guests in the classroom. • Optimize enrollment and financial aid to maintain a diverse student body and robust school community. Objective 3 Demonstrate a commitment to environmental stewardship and “green” practices as a school community. • Embrace paperless modes of communication as they become available in the increasingly digital world. • Encourage alternative modes of transportation to school to decrease the impact on our environment and our neighborhood. • Choose, when feasible, more energy efficient, eco-friendly, and sustainable options for facilities, operations, and programs. • Foster environmental stewardship throughout the academic program and educate the school community about “green” practices.
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school culture and values goal
facilities
In the next five years, Missoula International School will achieve the following:
financial health strategic goal
of philanthropy to ensure the financial stability of the school for our children and our children’s children.
Objective 1 Strengthen financial position to move MIS from a young school to a maturing institution. • Develop short and long-term financial strategies that balance the needs for a quality program with sustainable tuition levels and adequate reserves. • Attain salaries and benefits for faculty and staff that are competitive with peer schools. Objective 2 Build a sustainable, broad, and engaged network of funding sources to supplement tuition in order to nurture a diverse student population. • Develop and market after school opportunities. • Develop and market adult education opportunities. Objective 3 Engage in fundraising that supports the school’s mission, vision, and values. • Develop a fundraising plan that ensures all fundraising activities align with the mission of the school, fulfill the annual and long range fundraising objectives, and embrace and enhance the spirit of philanthropy and volunteerism within the MIS community. • Develop a fundraising strategy that engages current and former students and their families as well as cultivating the philanthropy of other interested donors and foundations. • Implement a volunteer fundraising subcommittee structure to supplement the board’s Fund Development Committee and facilitate smooth annual fundraising. • Extend opportunities for alumni and alumni families to maintain vibrant connections with MIS. • Review and update the MIS Gift Acceptance Policy to ensure it aligns with the school’s current fundraising philosophy.
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financial health goal
Build upon a diversified business model and a culture
In the next five years, Missoula International School will achieve the following: